Thin Film Processing Research Articles

A 405 nm Photodetector Based on the CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 Compound Thin Film

Aims: This work reported a 405 nm photodetector based on the thermal evaporated CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound thin film. Background: The post-annealing process of the CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound thin film prepared by thermal evaporation method has been improved in this work. To enhance the crystallization and photoresponse properties of the thin films, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) steam was used in post-annealing process, instead of using the previous way that increased the annealing temperature. Methods: The CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound powder was deposited directly on surface glass substrate by thermal evaporation to form CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound thin film. The thin films were post-annealed at 150 oC for 15 min to crystallize. The DMSO liquid was dropped on the substrate, and then the liquid would be evaporated completely to become DMSO steam during 150 oC post-annealing. The DMSO steam would cover the thin film completely to help the crystallization. Finally, the gold electrodes were deposited on surface of thin films with a conductive channel of 1 mm * 100 µm. Result: Results showed that the crystalline quality of the thin film after DMSO steam annealing was greatly improved compared with that of thin film without DMSO steam annealing. The energy gap was between 2.355 eV and 2.293 eV, which was similar to the previous report. In addition, under 405 nm excitation, the photocurrent of the thin film annealed in DMSO steam showed the rapid response (35 ms), good light radiation power dependence of the photocurrent and the improved responsivity. Especially, the responsivity at 3 V bias of the thin film annealed in DMSO steam increased to 1.5 times that of the thin film without DMSO steam annealing and even 4.5 times that of as-deposited film. Conclusion: A 405 nm photodetector based on the thermal evaporated CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound thin film was prepared successfully. The newest report has improved the preparation process of CsPbBr3-CsPb2Br5 compound thin films, where low annealing temperature with the DMSO steam assisted post-annealing process was used. The thin film annealed in DMSO steam possesses high crystalline quality and enhanced photoresponse performances, compared with thin film without DMSO steam annealing.

Evolution of CuO thin films through thermal oxidation of Cu films prepared by physical vapour deposition techniques

Understanding the conversion process of Cu thin films into copper oxide via thermal oxidation reaction is critical to determine their environmental stability as well as to prepare copper oxide thin films and nanostructures. This study reports the evolution of copper oxides through the thermal oxidation of Cu metal thin films deposited using two different processes i.e., DC sputtering and vacuum evaporation. The sputtered Cu films contain a fine-granular morphology with some porosity while the evaporated Cu films have a compact, coarse-granular surface. The oxidation of deposited Cu films was performed in ambient air at different temperatures ranging from 200 to 400 °C for 2–5 h. The polycrystalline cubic phase of Cu completely converts into a polycrystalline, cubic phase of Cu2O at 300 °C and the complete conversion of Cu2O phase into thermally stable, single-phase monoclinic CuO is achieved at 400 °C. The Cu2O and CuO films having a crystallite size of ∼15 nm exhibit an optical band gap of ∼2.3 and ∼1.8 eV, respectively. It is found that the CuO phase evolves through Cu2O intermediate phase via solid-state-reaction between Cu and oxygen. It is further noticed that the sputtered Cu films with smaller grains oxidize faster than the evaporated films having large-sized grains.

A process study of high-quality Zn(O,S) thin-film fabrication for thin-film solar cells

Abstract The Zn(O,S) thin film is considered a most promising candidate for a cadmium-free buffer layer of the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cell due to its advantages of optical responses in the short-wavelength region and adjustable bandgap. In this paper, the thin-film growth mechanism and process optimization of Zn(O,S) films fabricated using the chemical bath deposition method are systematically investigated. The thickness and quality of Zn(O,S) films were found to be strongly affected by the concentration variation of the precursor chemicals. It was also revealed that different surface morphologies of Zn(O,S) films would appear if the reaction time were changed and, subsequently, the optimum reaction time was defined. The film-growth curve suggested that the growth rate varied linearly with the deposition temperature and some defects appeared when the temperature was too high. In addition, to further improve the film quality, an effective post-treatment approach was proposed and the experimental results showed that the microstructure of the Zn(O,S) thin film was improved by an ammonia etching process followed by an annealing process. For comparison purposes, both Zn(O,S)-based and CdS-based devices were fabricated and characterized. The device with a Zn(O,S)-CIGS solar cell after post-treatment showed near conversion efficiency comparable to that of the device with the CdS-CIGS cell.

Simulation and Verification of the Direct Current Electric Field on Fabricating High Porosity f-MWCNTs Thin Films by Electrophoretic Deposition Technique.

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is the potential process in high porosity thin films' fabrication or complex surface coating for perovskite photovoltaics. Here, the electrostatic simulation is introduced to optimize the EPD cell design for the cathodic EPD process based on functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs). The similarity between the thin film structure and the electric field simulation is evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results. The thin-film surface at the edge has a higher roughness (Ra) compared to the center position (16.48 > 10.26 nm). The f-MWCNTs at the edge position tend to be twisted and bent due to the torque of the electric field. The Raman results show that f-MWCNTs with low defect density are more easily to be positively charged and deposited on the ITO surface. The distribution of oxygen and aluminum atoms in the thin film reveals that the aluminum atoms tend to have adsorption/electrostatic attraction to the interlayer defect positions of f-MWCNTs without individually depositing onto the cathode. Finally, this study can reduce the cost and time for the scale-up process by optimizing the input parameters for the complete cathodic electrophoretic deposition process through electric field inspection.

Deposition of Ultrathin MgB2 Films from a Suspension Using Cosolvent Marangoni Flow

Magnesium diboride (MgB2) has demonstrated, theoretically and experimentally, promise as a candidate material for hydrogen storage and has thus attracted much contemporary research interest. To study hydrogen gas adsorption on MgB2 thin films using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)─a workhorse apparatus for this specific experiment─MgB2 must be deposited uniformly on the active surface of the QCM without damaging the quartz's performance. In work presented here, a wet-chemistry colloid synthesis and deposition process of a MgB2 thin film on a gold (Au) surface was established to avoid the extreme conditions of conventional physical deposition methods. This process also counteracts the unwanted phenomena of drying droplets on a solid surface, particularly the coffee-ring effect. To verify the normal function of the QCM after MgB2 deposition and its ability to obtain meaningful data, simple gas adsorption tests were conducted on the QCM, and the MgB2 film on the QCM was characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for elemental analysis and surface roughness, respectively. To obtain information about the thickness and the involvement of the coffee-ring effect, the same synthesis route was applied on a similar gold substrate─an evaporated Au film on glass. XPS characterization of the film and its precursor suspension shows the potential existence of both MgB2 and its oxide forms. The film's thickness on evaporated Au was measured by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to be 3.9 nm. The resulting samples show mitigation of the coffee-ring effect through roughness measurements with AFM at two scan sizes of 50 × 50 and 1 × 1 μm2.

Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Molybdenum Oxide Thin Films at Low Temperatures for Hydrogen Gas Sensing.

Molybdenum oxide thin films are very appealing for gas sensing applications due to their tunable material characteristics. Particularly, the growing demand for developing hydrogen sensors has triggered the exploration of functional materials such as molybdenum oxides (MoOx). Strategies to enhance the performance of MoOx-based gas sensors include nanostructured growth accompanied by precise control of composition and crystallinity. These features can be delivered by using atomic layer deposition (ALD) processing of thin films, where precursor chemistry plays an important role. Herein, we report a new plasma-enhanced ALD process for molybdenum oxide employing the molybdenum precursor [Mo(NtBu)2(tBu2DAD)] (DAD = diazadienyl) and oxygen plasma. Analysis of the film thickness reveals typical ALD characteristics such as linearity and surface saturation with a growth rate of 0.75 Å/cycle in a broad temperature window between 100 and 240 °C. While the films are amorphous at 100 °C, crystalline β-MoO3 is obtained at 240 °C. Compositional analysis reveals nearly stoichiometric and pure MoO3 films with oxygen vacancies present at the surface. Subsequently, hydrogen gas sensitivity of the molybdenum oxide thin films is demonstrated in a laboratory-scale chemiresistive hydrogen sensor setup at an operation temperature of 120 °C. Sensitivities of up to 18% are achieved for the film deposited at 240 °C, showing a strong correlation between crystallinity, oxygen vacancies at the surface, and hydrogen gas sensitivity.

Laser-driven self-organized evolution of 1D- and 2D-Nanostructures from metal thin-films on silicon: Influence of alloying and oxidation

One- and two-dimensional laser-induced periodic surface structure (LIPSS) formation of various metal (Ag, Cu, Fe, Zn, Ti) thin films on silicon wafers is achieved by irradiation with circularly polarized 532 nm nanosecond laser pulses. The occurrence and the evolution of pseudo-1D linear periodic, 2D honeycomb-like structures, and 2D periodic nanoparticle arrays were mapped for each element in dependence on the energy applied, i.e. the effective pulse number, and the metal thin film thickness. Samples series with increasing pulse counts monitor, like snapshots, the progressive pattern evolution. Because the metal thin films are of nanometer thickness only, the co-structuring of the silicon substrate must be taken into account in all cases. Even more complex are LIPSS formations on samples carrying two stacked thin films. The LIPSS formation process of thin films becomes rather complex as soon as co-structuring of the substrate, oxidation of the material, and alloy formation with substrate material or a potential second thin film layer are considered. All these effects affect the morphology of the formed LIPSS patterns.

On the confluence of ultrafast high‐temperature sintering and flash sintering phenomena

AbstractUltrafast high‐temperature sintering (UHS) and flash sintering are novel methods for rapid sintering of ceramics, often completed in just a few seconds. Here, we show that both also share two additional features: an abrupt rise in electrical conductivity, which is electronic, and electroluminescence. More fundamentally, both are related to phonon physics where MD calculations have shown that proliferation of phonons at the edge of the Brillouin zone can induce Frenkel pairs without the application of electrical fields. Here, we show that, indeed, heating without the application of electric field, can also induce flash: Rapid heating processes of thin films of an oxide‐salt deposited on silk fibers, with a propane torch, are shown to induce electronic conductivity, electroluminescence, and rapid sintering of the oxide. The discussion in this article harkens back to two inventions, more than a century ago, which can now be related to flash and UHS: (i) the Nernst glow lamp circa 1900, made from zirconia, and (ii) the Welsbach mantle, constituted from ceria doped thorium oxide, in the late nineteenth century. Thus, the confluence between high heating rate and electric field induced flash phenomena links the past to the new. The emerging question is how injection of phonons that has been shown to create Frenkels can further induce high electronic conductivity and electroluminescence in oxides. Both electronic conductivity and luminescence are likely related to the generation of electron–hole pairs.

Surface roughness prediction in SILAR coating process of ZnO thin films: Mathematical modelling and validation

Surface roughness prediction in SILAR coating process of ZnO thin films: Mathematical modelling and validation

Deposition processing and surface metrology of MoNx thin films by design of experiment and single variable (nitrogen flow rate) methods

In this study, the Taguchi design of experiment (DOE) was performed to optimize the deposition process of MoNx thin films using unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS). Further single-variable experiments based on the sensitive parameter derived from the Taguchi experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the parameter on the phase evolution, structure, and properties of the MoNx thin films. The MoNx thin films were deposited using DC-UBMS. Four controlling factors: N2 flow rate, substrate bias voltage, substrate temperature, and substrate rotational speed were selected in the Taguchi L9 matrix experiment. Electrical resistivity and hardness were chosen as the quality characteristics for the optimization. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of mean (ANOM) were performed to identify the sensitive parameters and the optimum conditions. The confirmation test results for the optimizations of hardness (SH) and electrical resistivity (SR) were within the predicted ranges, and therefore the feasibility and reliability of the Taguchi optimization were verified. The results of ANOVA showed that nitrogen flow rate was the most sensitive factor. The optimum condition for the electrical resistivity was chosen to be the reference for the single-variable experiments, and nitrogen flow rate was selected as the controlling variable. The MoNx specimens in the single-variable experiment showed prevailing (200) texture that could be attributed to the lowest surface energy associated with (200) plane and the base metal steering effect by Mo (110). The results of single-variable experiments indicated that the retained Mo metal phase played an important role in hardness, electrical resistivity, and residual stress.

IR Spectrometric Studies of CCL4 and Ar Gas Mixtures

IR spectrometric studies were performed to examine the cryo-deposition processes and properties of thin cryo-vacuum condensate films containing a mixture of carbon tetrachloride and argon, which were obtained by physical cryo-vacuum deposition at various concentrations. The measurements were carried out in a temperature range of 11–100 K, and the pressure of the gas phase was 10–8 Torr-10–4 Torr. The film thickness in all experiments performed was d = 2 μm. The vibrational spectra of CCl4 in an argon matrix were measured in a frequency range of 400–4200 cm−1 at mixture concentrations (CCl4 + Ar) of 10–90%, 5–95%, and 1–99% and after the argon matrix underwent sublimation. Thermal desorption curves for the yield of the matrix gas (Ar) were obtained in the temperature range of 40–90 K for the (CCl4 and Ar) system. It was found that the CCl4 molecules in the Ar matrix substance underwent cryocapture. The results obtained suggest that carbon tetrachloride can be used as a matrix in low-temperature studies on self-organization processes in thin films.

Controlled growth of perovskite layers with volatile alkylammonium chlorides.

Controlling the crystallinity and surface morphology of perovskite layers by methods such as solvent engineering1,2 and methylammonium chloride addition3-7 is an effective strategy for achieving high-efficiency perovskite solar cells. In particular, it is essential to deposit α-formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) perovskite thin films with few defects due to their excellent crystallinity and large grain size. Here we report the controlled crystallization of perovskite thin films with the combination of alkylammonium chlorides (RACl) added to FAPbI3. The δ-phase to α-phase transition of FAPbI3 and the crystallization process and surface morphology of the perovskite thin films coated with RACl under various conditions were investigated through in situ grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. RACl added to the precursor solution was believed to be easily volatilized during coating and annealing owing to dissociation into RA0 and HCl with deprotonation of RA+ induced by RA⋯H+-Cl- binding to PbI2 in FAPbI3. Thus, the type and amount of RACl determined the δ-phase to α-phase transition rate, crystallinity, preferred orientation and surface morphology of the final α-FAPbI3. The resulting perovskite thin layers facilitated the fabrication of perovskite solar cells with a power-conversion efficiency of 26.08% (certified 25.73%) under standard illumination.

A Tiny Flexible Differential Tension Sensor.

Modern applications of Internet of Things (IoT) devices require cheap and effective methods of measurement of physical quantities. Cheap IoT devices with sensor functionalities can detect a lack or excess of substances in everyday life or industry processes. One possible use of tension sensors in IoT applications is the automated replenishment process of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) on shop shelves or home retail automation that allows for quick ordering of FMCG, where the IoT system is a part of smart packaging. For those reasons, a growing demand for cheap and tiny tension sensors has arisen. In this article, we propose a solution of a small flexible tension sensor fabricated in an amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film process that can be integrated with other devices, e.g., near-field communications (NFC) or a barcode radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The sensor was designed to magnify the slight internal changes in material properties caused by mechanical stress. These changes affect the dynamic electrical properties of specially designed inverters for a pair of ring oscillators, in which the frequencies become stress-dependent. In the article, we discuss and explain the approach to the optimum design of a ring oscillator that manifests the highest sensitivity to mechanical stress.

Multi-Spiral Laser Patterning of Azopolymer Thin Films for Generation of Orbital Angular Momentum Light.

Recently, the realization of the spiral mass transfer of matter has attracted the attention of many researchers. Nano- and microstructures fabricated with such mass transfer can be used for the generation of light with non-zero orbital angular momentum (OAM) or the sensing of chiral molecules. In the case of metals and semiconductors, the chirality of formed spiral-shaped microstructures depends on the topological charge (TC) of the illuminating optical vortex (OV) beam. The situation is quite different with polarization-sensitive materials such as azopolymers, azobenzene-containing polymers. Azopolymers show polarization-sensitive mass transfer both at the meso and macro levels and have huge potential in diffractive optics and photonics. Previously, only one-spiral patterns formed in thin azopolymer films using circularly polarized OV beams and double-spiral patterns formed using linearly polarized OV beams have been demonstrated. In these cases, the TC of the used OV beams did not affect the number of formed spirals. In this study, we propose to use two-beam (an OV and a Gaussian beam with a spherical wavefront) interference lithography for realization spiral mass transfer with the desired number of formed spirals. The TC of the OV beam allows for controlling the number of formed spirals. We show the microstructures fabricated by the laser processing of thin azopolymer films can be used for the generation of OAM light at the microscale with the desired TC. The experimentally obtained results are in good agreement with the numerically obtained results and demonstrate the potential of the use of such techniques for the laser material processing of polarization-sensitive materials.

Three-Dimensional Mechanistic Modeling of Time-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown in Polycrystalline Thin Films

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is a crucial issue for the dielectric reliability. In this work, we present a full three-dimensional mechanistic model for calculation of the TDDB process in polycrystalline thin films. The model is based on the multiphonon trap-assisted tunneling theory and takes into account the intrinsic three-dimensional discreteness of traps at the dielectric grain boundaries. The leakage current density is calculated by solving coupled three-dimensional master equation and Poisson equation. The net phonon emission associated with each charge trapping and release event is treated as a local point heat source, which then enters the Fourier heat equation for three-dimensional temperature distribution calculation. The generated trap is determined by local temperature and electric field, which is subsequently included in the next round of calculation of electric and thermal properties. A positive feedback loop gradually leads to an increase of trap density, temperature, and leakage current density, and finally the dielectric breakdown. Our model can, to a good approximation, reproduce the experimental leakage current density-voltage characteristics and the Weibull distribution of time to breakdown at different dielectric thicknesses, stress voltages, and environmental temperatures. We find that in realistic devices, the three-dimensional trap-to-trap transport of electrons contributes a non-negligible part to the leakage current when the dielectric approaches breakdown. Our approach of three-dimensional mechanistic simulation is computationally efficient such that evolution of ${10}^{3}$ traps during the TDDB process can be easily performed on a standard desktop computer.

Low magnetic damping in an ultrathin CoFeB layer deposited on a 300 mm diameter wafer at cryogenic temperature

We deposited an ultrathin CoFeB(1.1 nm) layer, which functions as a storage layer of MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions for spin-transfer-torque (STT) magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM), on ϕ300 mm wafers at 100 K and investigated its effect on the magnetization dynamics of CoFeB. We observed clear reductions in both the inhomogeneous linewidth and total magnetic damping parameter for the CoFeB layer deposited at 100 K compared to those deposited at 300 K through the improvement in the interfacial quality. The results show that deposition at cryogenic temperatures is an effective manufacturing process for high-quality magnetic thin films with low magnetic damping.

In Silico Designing of Thieno[2,3-b]thiophene Core-Based Highly Conjugated, Fused-Ring, Near-Infrared Sensitive Non-fullerene Acceptors for Organic Solar Cells.

The performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) has been improving steadily over the last few years, owing to the optimization of device fabrication, fine-tuning of morphology, and thin-film processing. Thiophene core containing fused ring-type non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) achieved significant proficiency for highly efficient OSCs. Quantum chemical computations are utilized herein with the motive of suggesting new NIR sensitive, highly efficient low-band gap materials for OSCs. A series of extended conjugated A-π-D-π-A architectured novel fused-ring NFAs (FUIC-1-FUIC-6) containing thieno[2,3-b]thiophene-based donor core are proposed by substituting the end-capped units of synthesized molecule F10IC. Different properties including frontier molecular orbital analysis, density of states analysis, transition density matrix analysis, excitation energy, reorganizational energies of both holes (λh) and electrons (λe), and open-circuit voltage (V oc) were performed employing the density functional theory approach. Charge transfer analysis of the best-designed molecule with the donor complex was analyzed to comprehend the efficiency of novel constructed molecules (FUIC-1-FUIC-6) and compared with the reference. End-caped acceptor alteration induces the reduction of the energy gap between HOMO-LUMO (1.88 eV), tunes the energy levels, longer absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions, larger V oc, smaller reorganizational energies, and binding energy values in designed structures (FUIC-1-FUIC-6) in comparison to reference (FUIC). The designed molecules show the best agreement with the PTBT-T donor polymer blend and cause the highest charge from the HOMO to the LUMO orbital. Our findings predicted that thieno[2,3-b] thiophene-based newly designed molecules would be efficient NFAs with outstanding photovoltaic characteristics and can be used in future applications of OSCs.

Nanobelt and nanoplatelet structured molybdenum disulfide thin film as a saturable absorber under nanopulsed green laser excitation

Demonstration of saturable absorption (SA) in MoS2 thin films with varying NLO coefficients as a function of reaction time of hydrothermal method is made using the open aperture Z-scan technique. Under nanosecond pulsed laser excitation (532 ​nm, 9 ns, 10 HZ), saturable absorption occurred involving the overtone of electron - hole pair state and band edge state of MoS2. Further higher ground state cross-section than excited state cross-section favors SA process in MoS2 thin films. The strong saturable absorption behaviors of nanobelt like structured MoS2 film could be attributed to the coexistence of 1T and 2H crystal phases and lower dimension morphology that allows more photons to transit to the higher energy state. Earlier the fabrication of MoS2 thin film on a FTO substrate with a varying reaction time of the hydrothermal technique such as 24, 36, 48 and 60 ​h was made. Raman spectrum has two sets of characteristics vibration representing the metallic 1T – octahedral coordination Oh phase and the semiconducting 2H – trigonal prismatic D3h phase. XRD and Raman studies confirm the formation of mixed phases of MoS2 with 1T phase dominating over 2H phase in MoS2 thin films. Here the absorbance and band gap of the MoS2 thin film increased with increase in reaction time. The luminescence spectra exhibit prominent peaks at 594 ​nm and 621 ​nm resulting from a direct bandgap transition and they are mostly due to the VBM splitting at the K-point. All the films exhibit maximum absorbance in the UV region (291 ​nm) due to the excitonic features of MoS2 and notable absorbance in the visible region (680 ​nm) due to the overtones of MoS2 ‘s electron-hole pair. SEM images confirm that nanoplatelet and nanobelt structured MoS2 was formed with varying size with respect to reaction time. Furthermore, while the nanoplatelet structure faded, nanobelts were grown for a prolonged reaction time. Thus, MoS2 nanostructure coated thin film would be useful for the design of saturable absorbers for fabricating optical switches and mode locking devices.

Electrochemical deposition and characterization of copper-cobalt oxide layers by electrodeposition

The copper-cobalt oxide (Cu2CoO3) was successfully elaborated on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate using the co-electrodeposition method in citric acid (C6H8O7) solution at a temperature of 70 °C. The co-electrodeposition process of Cu2CoO3 thin films was realized by the electrochemical technique: cycle voltammetry. In this work, the effect of the cycle number on the cyclic voltammetry (CV), structural, and morphological of the Cu2CoO3 thin films were discussed. The (CV) showed that the current density of the co-electrodeposition of Cu2CoO3 decreases with the number of cycles. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the co-electrodeposition copper-cobalt oxide (Cu2CoO3) nanocrystallites with orthorhombic crystal structures. The analysis of the morphological surface by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of copper-cobalt oxide indicated the formation of two types of crystals of different shapes: pyramidal and spherical corresponding to CoO2 and Cu2O respectively.

Effect of ion assistance on silicon nitride films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering

Silicon nitride films were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering, during which ion assistance was introduced. The results showed that the optical properties and composition were significantly affected by ion assistance. The refractive index was decreased from 2.87 to 2.17, and the extinction coefficient was decreased from 0.1535 to 0.0031 (@492 nm). The nitrogen-to-silicon ratio was increased from 0.612 to 0.955 by ion assistance, shifting from silicon-rich to near-stoichiometric. Not only that, the ion-assisted film featured lower roughness and less impurity. As the ion source power increased, the Raman peaks of silicon and silicon oxide decreased as well. In this work, ion assistance exhibits a considerable effect on silicon nitride films, which has potential applications in the processing of silicon nitride films and other semiconductor thin films.