The effect of relatively low hydrogen dilution on the properties of carbon-rich hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide films

Abstract

Carbon-rich hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-Si1–xCx:H) films were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using silane, ethylene and hydrogen as gas sources. The effect of relatively low hydrogen dilution on the properties of as-deposited samples was investigated. A variety of techniques including Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman scattering (RS), UV-VIS spectrophotometer and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were used to characterize the grown films. The deposition rate decreases with hydrogen dilution. The silicon to carbon ratio increases slightly with the addition of hydrogen. The phenomenon can be attributed to the dissipation of power density caused by hydrogen dilution. Raman G peak position shifting to a lower wave number indicates that hydrogen dilution reduces the size and concentration of sp2 carbon clusters, which is caused by the etching effect by atomic hydrogen. The optical band gap, which is controlled by the sp2 carbon clusters and Si/C ratio, changes unmonotonously. The as-deposited samples exhibited a blue-green room-temperature (RT) PL well visible to the naked eye with UV excitation. The PL band can be attributed to the radiative recombination of electron-hole pairs within small sp2 clusters containing C=C and C-H units in a sp3 amorphous matrix.