Post-annealing effect in reactive r.f.-magnetron-sputtered carbon nitride thin films

✍ Scribed by Chen, G. L.; Li, Y.; Lin, J.; Huan, C. H. A.; Guo, Y. P.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 106 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0142-2421
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9918(199908)28:1<245::aid-sia586>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

Thin films of CN x were deposited by reactive r.f.-magnetron sputtering on Si(100) substrates. The effect of annealing temperatures on the structural properties of the films has been studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Both FTIR and XPS results show that the population of the C N phase decreases upon annealing in a vacuum. The XPS N 1s peaks indicate the component due to the C N bond to be significantly weaker than the others. An increase of the annealing temperature leads to a more prominent peak corresponding to the C-N phase in the FTIR absorption spectra. These results suggest a substantial decrease of the weakly bound nitrogen and carbon dangling bonds. Electron diffraction measurements reveal the existence of polycrystalline C 3 N 4 structures in films annealed at 700 °C in a vacuum. The XPS studies confirmed that these crystalline phases are composed exclusively of carbon and nitrogen.