STRUCTURE AND PHOTOLUMINESCENT PROPERTIES OF SiCO THIN-FILMS DOPED WITH Al PREPARED BY DUAL MAGNETRON SPUTTERING

Abstract

SiCO thin-films doped with aluminum (Al) prepared by alternate deposition of SiC and Al thin layers using Ar and O 2 as sputtering gas were deposited on n- Si substrates. The as-deposited thin-films were annealed under 600°C in nitrogen ambient. The thin-films have been characterized by atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectra. The results showed that the introduction of Al promotes the formation of Si — C bonds, but hinders amorphous SiC to further transform to crystalline SiC . The doped Al would react with SiO x in the thin-films to form more Si particles which strongly affect the optical properties. After Al doped, there presented a seven times of enhancement emission band centered around 412 nm, which is ascribed to nanostructure Si -related defect centers embedded in the SiCO thin-films. The obtained results are expected to have important applications in modern optoelectronic devices.