Chemical vapour deposition of silicon nitride in a microwave plasma assisted reactor

Rapid synthesis of nc-Si/a-SiNx:H QD thin films by plasma processing for their cost effective applications in photonic and photovoltaic devices

“…Besides the crystallites of silicon, the network also contains tiny crystallites of silicon-nitride (Si 3 N 4 ), the signature of which has been identied by the corresponding (301) crystallographic plane of a-Si 3 N 4 at around 2Q ¼ 43.40 and b-Si 3 N 4 at around 2Q ¼ 41 . 9,28,29 The maximum peak intensities of the a-Si 3 N 4 and b-Si 3 N 4 component peaks in the XRD spectra are detected for the samples prepared at p ¼ 30 and 40 mTorr, where I (220) /I (111) of the nc-Si peaks attain the maximum magnitude of $1 and the overall crystallinity is very high as well as the grain sizes being relatively large. With even higher pressure, at p ¼ 50 and 60 mTorr, the Si 3 N 4 components virtually disappear.…”

Ab initiocalculations of strain fields and failure patterns in silicon nitride intergranular glassy films

“…Therefore, it is remarkable that the calculated peak stress compares well with the tensile strength of 5.87 GPa reported by Edwards et al [22] for Si 3 N 4 based upon uniaxial stress lab experiments on thin films obtained from chemical vapour deposition process. The similarity in results could be due to relatively defect free microstructure with reduced glassy phase at grain boundaries possible in chemical vapour deposition process [23].…”