Effect of oxygen plasma treatment on bonding states for columnar structured a-CNx thin films prepared by reactive sputtering

Abstract

Amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN) thin films were deposited on silicon single crystal substrates by rf-reactive sputtering method using a graphite target and nitrogen gas. The substrate temperature was varied from room temperature (RT) to 853K. After deposition, the effect of oxygen plasma treatment on bonding structures of the film surface has been studied by using an oxygen discharge at 16Pa and rf power of 85W. The chemical bonding states and film composition were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), while film thickness was obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ellipsometer. XPS study revealed that the films have NO2 and NO3 bonding structures when the films are deposited at temperatures higher than 673K. After exposure to oxygen plasma, carbon in the film surface was etched selectively and this phenomenon was observed in all films. In contrast, the surface concentration of nitrogen was ket at constant values before and after oxygen plasma treatment. The NO3 bonding state had dramatically increased after oxygen plasma treatment for films deposited at higher deposition temperatures. The film surfaces have been observed to change the function from hydrophobic to hydrophilic after oxygen plasma treatment.