Dielectric properties of silicon nitride films

Hafnium dioxide as a dielectric for highly-sensitive waveguide-coupled surface plasmon resonance sensors

“…6,12 In the search for new and improved waveguide dielectric materials, we have undertaken studies of the usefulness of hafnium dioxide (HfO 2 ) as a dielectric to be used in the fabrication of Ag/HfO 2 /Au SPPs based sensors. In comparison to the Si 3 N 4 dielectric, [13][14][15][16][17] hafnium dioxide offers several attractive properties. For example, HfO 2 is characterized with 4-6 times higher dielectric constant, optical transparency over much wider range of wavelengths (250-2000 nm), 3 times higher density in the solid state, chemical stability, and very high melting point 2758 0 C. [18][19][20][21][22] The high dielectric constant and good optical transparency over wider wavelength range are useful for high sensitivity waveguide coupled bimetallic (WCBM) sensors working in VIS-IR range.…”

Silicon Nitride Films by Direct RF Sputter Deposition

“…Among the several methods which have seen general use for the deposition of amorphous layers of silicon nitride are: the pyrolysis of silane in the presence of gaseous nitrogen compounds (4,(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), rf and microwave discharge induced CVD (31)(32)(33)(34), ion beam techniques (35), and reactive sputter deposition from a high-purity silicon target (36)(37)(38)(39). The most common method of film formation appears to be the CVD techniques.…”