The effect of gas composition on the properties of silicon oxynitride thin film prepared by low-pressure inductively coupled Ar/N2 plasma

Park, Woojin; Han, Jonggu; Kim, Jongsik; Moon, Se Youn

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2022.139629

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…However, ensuring a high production of Natoms is known to be challenging as the dissociation of N2 is hard to achieve because of the strong triple bonding (941 kJ/mol) connecting the two atoms of the N2 molecule 23 . The role of Ar in the discharge is therefore not only to perform the sputtering process; it may also participate in the enhancement of N-atom production through a resonant energy transfer channel with the Ar metastable species (Penning excitation) 24, 25 . As a simple and nonintrusive way to identify the conditions that promote Ga sputtering while having strong emission of N2, we used OES as a qualitative indicator.…”

Section: A Plasma Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Reactive plasma sputtering deposition of polycrystalline GaN thin films on silicon substrates at room temperature

Srinivasan,

Jadaud,

Silva

et al. 2023

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A

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We report on the successful growth of polycrystalline GaN thin films on Si (100) substrates at room temperature (without intentional heating) using radiofrequency reactive magnetron sputtering. We use Ar and N2 as the main sputtering and N-atom precursor gas sources, respectively, and a gallium cathode as the Ga-atom source. We focus here on studying the effect of working pressure, as it is found to be the parameter that plays the most influential role on the crystalline quality of the thin films in the investigated range (20–95 mTorr). The morphology, microstructure, and composition profile of the GaN thin films are analyzed using a set of ex situ solid-state characterization techniques. This study reveals that for process pressures below 50 mTorr, the resulting films possess an amorphous nature, while for process pressures above that they become polycrystalline. Most of the crystalline films are found to be nanostructured with grain sizes typically ranging from 10 to 30 nm in size. The highest growth rate of ∼ 2.9 Å/s is obtained for the deposition carried out at 50 mTorr. At this pressure, the films exhibit the best crystallinity with a dominant wurtzite hexagonal structure. The elemental distribution of Ga and N throughout the growth profile is uniform with a sharp interface at the substrate, demonstrating one of the interests in working at low temperatures to avoid melt-back etching, a destructive reaction between gallium and silicon, that usually takes place at high temperatures.

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Section: A Plasma Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%