Ripple surface generated on hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride films

It is reported for the first time that the periodical ripple surface feature at micrometer-scale was observed on hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride films deposited by pulse plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Nitrogen incorporation to hydrogenated amorphous carbon films and the different growing environments of pulse dc plasma discharge perhaps played crucial role in the surface morphology transformation of hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride films.     

Carbon nitride films by RF plasma assisted PLD: Spectroscopic and electronic analysis

Carbon nitride (CNx) thin films have been grown on Si 〈1 0 0〉 by 193 nm ArF ns pulsed laser ablation of a pure graphite target in a low pressure atmosphere of a RF generated N₂ plasma and compared with samples grown by PLD in pure nitrogen atmosphere. Composition, structure and bonding of the deposited materials have been evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman scattering. Significant chemical and micro-structural changes have been registered, associated to different nitrogen incorporation in the two types of films analyzed. The intensity of the reactive activated species is, indeed, increased by the presence of the bias confined RF plasma, as compared to the bare nitrogen atmosphere, thus resulting in a different nitrogen uptake in the growing films. The process has been also investigated by some preliminary optical emission studies of the carbon plume expanding in the nitrogen atmosphere. Optical emission spectroscopy reveals the presence of many excited species like C⁺ ions, C atoms, C₂, N₂; and CN radicals, and N₂⁺ molecular ions, whose relative intensity appears to be increased in the presence of the RF plasma. The films were also characterised for electrical properties by the “four-probe-test method” determining sheet resistivity and correlating surface conductivity with chemical composition.     

Nanomechanical characterization of amorphous hydrogenated carbon thin films

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) thin films deposited on a silicon substrate under various mixtures of methane-hydrogen gas by electron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (ECR-MPCVD) was investigated. Microstructure, surface morphology and mechanical characterizations of the a-C:H films were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation technique, respectively. The results indicated there was an increase of the hydrogen content, the ratio of the D-peak to the G-peak (I_D/I_G) increased but the surface roughness of the films was reduced. Both hardness and Young's modulus increased as the hydrogen content was increased. In addition, the contact stress-strain analysis is reported. The results confirmed that the mechanical properties of the amorphous hydrogenated carbon thin films improved using a higher H₂ content in the source gas.     

Preparation of boron carbon nitride thin films by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Boron carbon nitride films were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering using a composite target consisting of h-BN and graphite in an Ar-N₂ gas mixture. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results suggest that the films are atomic-level hybrids composed of B, C and N atoms. The boron carbon nitride films prepared in the present experiment have a disordered structure. The sputtering power varied from 80 W to 130 W. This sputtering power was shown to have regular effect on the composition of boron carbon nitride films. The samples deposited at 80 W and 130 W are close to the stoichiometry of BC₃N. The sample deposited at 110 W is close to the stoichiometry of BCN. The samples deposited at 100 W and 120 W approach to BC₂N. It is very significant for us to synthesize boron carbon nitride compound with controllable composition by changing the sputtering power.     

Influence of oxygen on the growth of cubic boron nitride thin films by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition

Cubic boron nitride thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by low-pressure inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. It was found that the introduction of O₂ into the deposition system suppresses both nucleation and growth of cubic boron nitride. At a B₂H₆ concentration of 2.5\% during film deposition, the critical O₂ concentration allowed for the nucleation of cubic boron nitride was found to be less than 1.4\%, while that for the growth of cubic boron nitride was higher than 2.1\%. Moreover, the infrared absorption peak observed at around 1230--1280~cm^-1, frequently detected for cubic boron nitride films prepared using non-ultrahigh vacuum systems, appears to be due to the absorption of boron oxide, a contaminant formed as a result of the oxygen impurity. Therefore, the existence of trace oxygen contamination in boron nitride films can be evaluated qualitatively by this infrared absorption peak.     

衬底温度对ZnO薄膜晶体结构和电学性质的影响研究

由GDARE法在较低温度下,以玻璃为衬底沉积ZnO薄膜,用SEM、AFM、XRD及交流阻抗谱测量等方法研究了衬底温度对薄膜表面形貌、晶体结构以及晶体导电性质的影响.研究结果表明,室温下沉积的薄膜为颗粒致密的非晶相结构,晶界电阻较小.在衬底温度大于50℃时,由GDARE法可沉积出具有一定c轴取向的ZnO薄膜.随衬底温度的升高,薄膜沿c轴择优生长趋势明显增强,内应力减小,晶界效应增强,晶界电阻增大.衬底温度大于100℃后,沿c轴的取向度增强趋势减缓.在衬底温度180～200℃时,可获得高度c轴取向的ZnO超细微粒薄膜,其结晶性能良好,表面光滑,平均粒径30～40nm,晶粒尺寸均匀,晶形规则,沿c轴的内应力很小,取向度达0.965.此时薄膜的晶界效应增强,晶界电阻明显大于室温下沉积的薄膜,而晶粒电阻所占比例很小,总阻抗以晶界电阻为主.同时还讨论了衬底温度对薄膜晶体结构及晶界特性的影响机理.     

Deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride films by dielectric barrier discharge plasmas

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:N:H) films were synthesized from CH₄/N₂, C₂H₄/N₂ and C₂H₂/N₂ mixtures using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasmas. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the surface morphology, bonding structure, and composition of the a-C:N:H films. The influences of plasma parameters (discharge pressure in the range of 25-1000 Pa) and feed gases used on the composition and the structure of deposited films were systematically studied. The a-C:N:H films with the uniform surface structure were deposited by low-pressure DBD plasmas with various systems. Compared to the films deposited in C₂H₄/N₂ and C₂H₂/N₂ systems, the films deposited in the CH₄/N₂ system exhibit the relatively lower surface roughness and deposition rate. For all the films prepared in these three systems, increasing the discharge pressure leads to an increase in film surface roughness and deposition rate. Significant differences among the FTIR spectra of all deposited a-C:N:H films were also observed. Both FTIR and XPS spectra show that for all the films deposited in three different systems, increasing the N₂ fraction leads to a decrease in the H content of deposited a-C:N:H films and an increase in the N content. The properties of deposited films may change from those of polymerlike to diamond-like when the discharge pressure is increased. Correlations between the film properties and growth processes are discussed in this study.     

Reactive pulsed laser deposition of gold nitride thin films

We report on the growth and characterization of gold nitride thin films on Si 〈1 0 0〉 substrates at room temperature by reactive pulsed laser ablation. A pure (99.95%) Au target was ablated with KrF excimer laser pulses in nitrogen containing atmosphere (N₂ or NH₃). The gas ambient pressure was varied in the range 0.1-100 Pa. The morphology of the films was studied by using optical, scanning electron and atomic force microscopy, evidencing compact films with RMS roughness in the range 3.6-35.1 nm, depending on the deposition pressure. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) were used to detect the nitrogen concentration into the films. The EDS nitrogen peak does not decrease in intensity after 2 h annealing at 250 °C. Film resistivity was measured using a four-point probe and resulted in the (4-20) × 10⁻⁸ Ω m range, depending on the ambient pressure, to be compared with the value 2.6 × 10⁻⁸ Ω m of a pure gold film. Indentation and scratch measurements gave microhardness values of 2-3 GPa and the Young's modulus close to 100 GPa. X-ray photoemission spectra clearly showed the N 1s peak around 400 eV and displaced with respect to N₂ phase. All these measurements point to the formation of the gold nitride phase.     

In situ infrared spectroscopic study of cubicboron nitride thin film delamination

This paper investigates the procedure of cubic boron nitride （cBN） thin film delamination by Fourier-transform infrared （IR） spectroscopy. It finds that the apparent IR absorption peak area near 1380cm^-1 and 1073 cm^-1 attributed to the B-N stretching vibration of sp2-bonded BN and the transverse optical phonon of cBN, respectively, increased up to 195% and 175% of the original peak area after film delamination induced compressive stress relaxation. The increase of IR absorption of sp2-bonded BN is found to be non-linear and hysteretic to film delamination, which suggests that the relaxation of the turbostratic BN （tBN） layer from the compressed condition is also hysteretic to film delamination. Moreover, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopic observations revealed that cBN film delamination is possible from near the aBN（amorphous BN）/tBN interface at least for films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.     

Raman studies on the effect of multiple-energy ion implantation on single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride

Single energy ion implantation of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) at various fluences and keV energies has shown that there is a change in the local symmetry of the crystal from hexagonal to the cubic (c-BN) symmetry. These conclusions have been primarily based on Raman scattering (RS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses have been a challenge because the sample preparation for cross-sectional study of both the polycrystalline substrates and single-crystal material used in the study presented problems that were difficult to circumvent. A multiple-energy implant with different fluence fractions has been used to create a uniform implanted layer in the material from the surface to the end of range of the implant in this study. We report on the initial RS studies on these samples.     

Mechanical and electrochemical characterization of vanadium nitride (VN) thin films

Vanadium nitride (V-N) thin films were grown using a reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering process, from a vanadium target (99.999%) in an Ar/N₂ gas mixture at different deposition bias voltage. Films were deposited onto silicon (1 0 0) and RUS-3 steel substrates at 400 °C. Structural, compositional, mechanical and electrochemical characterizations were performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), elastic forward analysis (EFA), nanoindentation, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and Tafel polarization curves, respectively. X-ray diffraction patterns show the presence of (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) crystallographic orientations associated to the V-N cubic phase. Nanoindentation measurements revealed that when the bias voltage increases from 0 V to −150 V the hardness and elastic modulus are increased from 11 GPa to 20 GPa and from 187 GPa to 221 GPa, respectively. EIS and Tafel curves showed that the corrosion rate of steel, coated with V-N single layer films deposited without bias voltage, diminishes 90% compared to the steel without this coating. On the other hand, when the V-N coating was deposited at the highest d.c. bias voltage (−150 V), the corrosion rate was greater than in the steel coated with zero-voltage (0 V) V-N films. This last result could be attributed to the formation of porosities produced by the ion bombardment during the deposition process.     

Electrical and electronic properties of nitrogen doped amorphous carbon (a-CNx) thin films

Nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon thin films (a-CN_x) were prepared on silicon substrate by pulsed laser deposition process using methane (CH₄) and nitrogen (N₂) as source gas. The electrical properties of a-CN_x films changes with nitrogen concentration in the film structure. The intensity ratio of the D and G peak (I_D/I_G) increases with higher nitrogen concentration, which means that sp²-clusters were formed in these films and is responsible for the enhancement of conductivity of the a-CN_x films. We observed that the amorphous carbon (a-C) films becoming more graphitic in nature yielding higher conductivity/lower resistivity with increase of nitrogen concentration. Electron field emission result shows that the emission current density enhances with nitrogen doping that indicates the useful in electron field emission devices application.     

Influence of substrate temperature and post-treatment on the properties of ZnO:Al thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Highly transparent conductive Al₂O₃ doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films have been deposited on the glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. The effects of substrate temperature and post-deposition annealing treatment on structural, electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films were investigated. The experimental results show that the electrical resistivity of films deposited at 240 °C is 6.1 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm, which can be further reduced to as low as 4.7 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm by post-deposition annealing at 400 °C for 2 h in argon. The average transmission of AZO films in the visible range is 90%. The optical direct band gap of films was dependent on the substrate temperature and the annealing treatment in argon. The optical direct band gap value of AZO films increased with increasing annealing temperature.     

衬底温度对氧化锌薄膜的光谱学特性影响研究

采用脉冲激光沉积技术,在不同沉积温度下制备了氧化锌薄膜。对衬底温度为400和700℃的薄膜进行了结构和光谱学性能表征。结果表明:沉积温度为400和700℃时,氧化锌薄膜均为C轴取向生长;但是表面晶粒生长模式由岛状生长转为柱状晶生长,柱状晶的出现导致了氧化锌薄膜拉曼光谱信号的增强、谱线的展宽、以及拉曼禁戒模式的出现;氧化锌UV峰由3.29 eV红移到3.27 eV,这可能是由于沉积温度为700℃时,氧化锌颗粒尺寸显著增大造成的。     

Correlation between structure and photoluminescence in amorphous hydrogenated silicon nitride alloys

As-deposited a-SiN_x:H (0.1<x<0.9) thin films prepared by evaporation of silicon under a flow of nitrogen and hydrogen ions exhibit visible photoluminescence at room temperature without any posttreatment. The nitrogen concentration was determined by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The structural characterization was performed with Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy. The optical gap was obtained from transmission measurements in the ultraviolet–visible–near infrared range. These studies were correlated to the evolution of the photoluminescence properties.     

基底对光学薄膜弱吸收测量的影响

 对表面热透镜技术测量光学薄膜弱吸收低频调制时不同基底对测量的影响进行了理论分析。用Lambda—900分光光度计测量了K9和石英基底的Ti₃O₅单层膜的吸收值,将该组样品作为定标片;用表面热透镜装置分别测量了BK7和石英空白基底及HfO₂,ZnO两组不同基底不同厚度单层膜样品的吸收。通过分析比较同一工艺条件下镀制的不同基底薄膜样品用与其同种和不同种基底定标片定标测量的结果,表明在低频测量时需要用与测量样品同种基底的定标片定标;不同厚度样品的测量结果表明,在不能严格满足热薄条件时,测量结果需引入修正值。     

衬底温度对ZnMgO薄膜结构和光致发光性能的影响

利用超声喷雾热解方法以不同的沉积温度(450～550 ℃)在石英衬底上制备出一系列ZnMgO薄膜。采用X射线衍射仪(XRD)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和光致发光谱(PL)表征了样品的晶体结构、表面形貌和光学性能。结果表明衬底温度对薄膜结构性能和光学特性影响显著。所有薄膜都呈六角纤锌矿多晶结构,其中在530 ℃条件下制备的样品C轴择优最明显,晶粒尺寸均匀,表面形貌平整,结晶质量最好。薄膜的光致发光谱显示随着温度的升高深能级跃迁范围逐渐减小,近紫外带边发光峰逐步出现。衬底温度为530 ℃时在374.5 nm处出现了明显的近紫外发光峰,且几乎没有明显的深能级跃迁出现。     

衬底温度对类金刚石薄膜力学性能的影响

 采用脉冲激光沉积方法在不同衬底温度下制备了最高硬度与弹性模量分别达45 GPa和290 GPa,且表面十分光滑的类金刚石薄膜。在相对湿度为80%的条件下,薄膜最低的摩擦系数与磨损率分别为0.045与5.74×10^-10 mm³·N^-1·m^-1。实验结果表明,硬度与弹性模量随衬底温度升高而降低,摩擦系数与磨损率随衬底温度升高而增大。拉曼光谱表明:在室温下制备的薄膜为典型类金刚石结构,sp³含量高达76.8%,而随温度升高,薄膜结构逐渐经无定形碳结构向纳米晶石墨结构方向发展,sp³含量也随之降低,力学性能变差。     

The effect of hydrogen on copper nitride thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering

Copper nitride thin films were deposited on Si (1 0 0) wafers by reactive magnetron sputtering at various H₂/N₂ ratios. X-ray diffraction measurements show that the films are composed of Cu₃N crystallites with anti-ReO₃ structure and exhibit preferred orientation of [1 0 0] direction. Although the relative composition of the films has obviously changes with the H₂/N₂ ratios, the orientations of the films keep almost no changes. However, the grain size, lattice parameter and composition of the films are strongly dependent on the H₂/N₂ ratios. The copper nitride films prepared at 10% H₂/N₂ ratios show poor stability and large weight gain compared to the copper nitride films prepared at 0% H₂/N₂ ratios.     

Investigation of induced parallel magnetic anisotropy at low deposition temperature in Ba-hexaferrites thin films

In this paper we present the effect of low substrate temperature on structural, morphological, magnetic and optical properties of Ba-hexaferrite thin films. Films were deposited on single crystal Silicon (1 0 0) substrate employing the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique. The structural, morphological, magnetic and optical properties are found to be strongly dependent on substrate temperature. The low substrate temperatures (room temperature to 200 °C) restrict the formation of larger grains. For the higher substrate temperature i.e., 400 °C, the grain size of the deposited thin film are much larger. The film grown at low substrate temperature do not show any anisotropy. As the substrate temperature is increased, the easy axis of the films alinged itself in the direction parallel to the film plane whereas the hard axis remained in the perpendicular direction. The higher substrate temperature caused the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, which is very important in magnetic recording devices. The saturation magnetization and optical band gap energy values of 62 emu/cc and 1.75 eV, respectively, were achieved for the film of thickness 500 nm deposited at 400 °C. Higher values of coercivity, squareness and films thickness are associated with the growth of larger grains at higher substrate temperature.