Microstructural characterization of hard hydrogenated amorphous silicon–carbon alloys

Abstract

It is shown that inert gas effusion from carbon-rich a-SiC:H alloys implanted with Ar/Ne is a useful tool for microstructure characterization. The method measures sensitively interconnected voids and gives information about sizes of microstructure and/or mechanical properties. Results suggest decreased openings dimensions and/or increased network rigidity as a result of increasing silicon content. Analysis of films deposited at different self-bias voltages and annealed samples suggests that the diffusion process is controlled by the sizes of void-network openings and cannot be directly related to carbon bonding or hydrogen content of the films. The results show network reconstruction effects in a-SiC:H alloys as a function of annealing.