Remote Hydrogen Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition from (Dimethylsilyl)(trimethylsilyl)methane. 1. Kinetics of the Process; Chemical and Morphological Structure of Deposited Silicon−Carbon Films

• Published in: Chemistry of materials 2003-04, Vol.15 (8), p.1749-1756
• Main Authors: Wróbel, A. M, Walkiewicz-Pietrzykowska, A, Klemberg-Sapieha, J. E, Nakanishi, Y, Aoki, T, Hatanaka, Y
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Structure and morphology; thickness; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology
• ISSN: 0897-4756; 1520-5002
• DOI: 10.1021/cm021250c

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon−carbon (a-Si:C:H) films have been produced by the remote hydrogen plasma chemical vapor deposition (RHP-CVD) using (dimethylsilyl)(trimethylsilyl)methane as a single-source compound. The effect of the substrate temperature on the kinetics of the RHP-CVD process, structure, composition, and surface morphology of the resulting film has been investigated. The Arrhenius plots of substrate temperature dependencies of the mass- and thickness-based film growth rate imply that the investigated RHP-CVD is an adsorption-controlled process. The increase of the substrate temperature from 30 to 400 °C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of a Si-carbidic network structure. The microscopic examination revealed that the films are defect-free materials of excellent morphological homogeneity and good conformality of coverage.