Influence of structural disorder on soft x-ray optical behavior of NbC thin films

Abstract

Structural and chemical properties of compound materials are modified, when thin films are formed from bulk materials. To understand these changes, a study was pursued on niobium carbide (NbC) thin films of different thicknesses deposited on Si (100) substrate using ion beam sputtering technique. Optical response of the film was measured in 4–36 nm wavelength region using Indus-1 reflectivity beamline. A discrepancy in soft x-ray performance of NbC film was observed which could not be explained with Henke's tabulated data (see http://henke.lbl.gov/optical_constants/). In order to understand this, detailed structural and chemical investigations were carried out using x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, x-ray absorption near edge structure, extended x-ray absorption fine structure, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. It was found that the presence of unreacted carbon and Nb deficiency due to reduced Nb-Nb coordination are responsible for lower soft x-ray reflectivity performance. NbC is an important material for soft x-ray optical devices, hence the structural disorder need to be controlled to achieve the best performances.