Comparison between radical- and energetic ion-induced growth of SiCxNy films in plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition
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abstract
Ternary SiCxNy compounds are materials with some remarkable properties such as high oxidation resistance and high hardness. In this work we compare the properties of SiCxNy films obtained using radio-frequency (rf) and pulsed glow discharge (PGD) plasmas with combinations of SiH4, C2H2, N2, and Ar source gases. The pulsed voltage used for the rf deposition was 200V and for the PGD deposition it was 4kV. During the rf growth, the growth takes place mostly by attaching neutral radicals to form chemical bonds. In the PGD method, the deposition takes place by subplantation and surface activation by energetic ions. We show that in the case of low-energy RF deposition, a high relative number of CN bonds with sp3 hybridization is formed and very few SiC bonds can be observed. Apparently the growth of carbon nitride and silicon nitride networks takes place independently. This indicates that SiH3 radicals attach to the dangling bonds of silicon and nitrogen, whereas C2H radicals attach to the dangling bonds of carbon and nitrogen. During pulsed glow discharge deposition, bonds between all three components are formed apparently by means of subplantation and damage-induced disorder. The hardness of the PGD films exceed that of the RF films, showing that to form a dense SiCxNy film one has to either supply energy during the growth of the films by heating the substrate, as in the case of chemical vapor deposition or by using energetic ions.
