Crystalline silicon nitride thin films grown by pulsed YAG laser deposition

Abstract

Silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon (Si) thin films have been prepared on Si (100) substrates using pulsed Nd: YAG laser (λ-532 nm) deposition. The laser beam is incident on the Si 3N 4 and Si targets. The films are grown using the energy density 3.8 J/cm 2 at a laser repetition rate of 10 Hz. The nitrogen gas pressure in the chamber is 10.0 Pa. The experiments have been done at different substrate temperatures. The films have been characterized by field-emission secondary electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-1R) and glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD). FE-SEM shows that the SiN film consists of many particles whose sizes are about 200 –800 nm. GXRD indicates that crystalline Si 3N 4 and Si thin films are obtained using Si 3N 4 and Si targets, respectively.