Annealing of silicon carbonitride nanostructured thin films: interdependency of hydrogen content, optical, and structural properties

Khatami, Zahra; Nowikow, Cameron; Wójcik, J.; Mascher, P.

doi:10.1007/s10853-017-1576-6

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The energy threshold is shifted to higher energies by ∼2 eV relative to a-Si indicating a larger bandgap of SiCN and SiC, and accordingly, larger band gap of Si 3 N 4 and SiO 2 , which is in agreement with the measured band gap of our samples; Eg SiC ≈ 3.2 eV, Eg SiN ≈ 4.8 eV, and reported values of Eg SiO2 ≈ 8 eV. 23 Sample SiCN-0.5 shows that a slight addition of nitrogen induces significant restructuring of the local environment of silicon atoms and hinders the strongest feature at ∼1848 eV in SiC samples. This feature is attributed to both Si 1s to σ* Si-O and σ* Si-C , 34 which is not observed in a-Si 3 N 4 .…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…It should be noted that as-deposited samples are all amorphous as previously determined by XRD and TEM techniques. 18,23 Thin film composition.-We employed graphite substrates, which enables the detection of well-distinct signals from light elements contrary to the silicon substrates commonly used for such films. Figure 1 shows the constituent elements (hydrogen is excluded) with their low uncertainty as a function of N 2 to CH 4 flow rate during the deposition.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reduction of Peak 3 is attributed to C atoms at C≡N sites and C-H σ likely due to both breakage of C≡N and hydrogen diffusion at temperatures higher than ∼500 °C. 23 The increase of Peak 1 and Peak 2 can be explained in terms of the formation of "pseudo graphitic" structures in the annealed samples, where some clusters contain carbon rings or sheets (as in graphite) but instead of pure carbon, there are some nitrogen and silicon impurities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Improved by Nitrogen for All-Silicon Solar Cells

Khatami

Bleczewski

Neville

et al. 2020

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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Synchrotron-based experiments in combination with optical measurements were used to explore the potential of a photovoltaic material based on silicon carbonitride (SiCN) thin films, in particular for the use in space solar cells. The large bandgap, SiCN films were fabricated using electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR-PECVD) followed by low-temperature annealing processes. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) with excitations at the carbon, nitrogen, and silicon K-edges verifies that the presence of nitrogen tends to disrupt Si–C networks. This results in the enhancement of light absorption and bandgap widening, which is desirable for front emitters in all-silicon tandem solar cells. The ternary structure of SiCN allows bandgap engineering and tuning of the light absorption and refractive index through careful design of the composition. XANES showed that the thermal annealing at a medium temperature (500 °C) using N2 ambient promoted the formation of Si–Si and C–N sp2 bonds before disappearing in higher annealing temperatures. In our opinion unlocking the potential of robust SiC mixed with nitrogen in SiCN matrix has appeal in radiation-resistant solar cells, where it can serve as the top emitter layer in all-silicon tandem solar cells and at the same time benefits the antireflection properties.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Improved by Nitrogen for All-Silicon Solar Cells

Khatami

Bleczewski

Neville

et al. 2020

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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“…Both can be assigned to carbon-nitrogen configurations. 22 In most cases, the overlap of the C-N and C = N absorption modes makes it difficult to distinguish them. 30 We attribute the enhancement of these two peaks to the formation of more C-N/C = N bonds at higher T d , which was also observed by Tomasella et al 31 Fig .…”

Section: N9mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…33 We reported more details of the analysis of the optical constants of a-SiC x N y H z thin films previously. 22 Figs. 4a and 4b shows the typical spectra obtained from VASE measurements at different ellipsometric angles and the fitted data delivering the refractive index and thickness from VASE data ( and parameters).…”

Section: N9mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Khatami

Bosco

Wójcik

et al. 2018

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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The influence of the substrate temperature and argon gas flow on the compositional, structural, optical, and light emission properties of amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbonitride (a-SiC x N y :H) thin films were studied. Thin films were fabricated using electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR PECVD) at a range of substrate temperatures from 120 to 170 • C (corresponding to deposition temperatures of 300 to 450 • C) in a mixture of SiH 4 , N 2 , and CH 4 precursors. Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (VASE), elastic recoil detection (ERD), and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) verified optical bandgap widening, layer densification, and an increase of the refractive index at higher substrate temperatures. The microstructure of a-SiC x N y :H z thin films was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The substrate temperature strongly affected the binding state of all atoms, and in particular, carbon atoms attached to silicon and nitrogen, as well as hydrogen-terminated bonds. We correlated the films' microstructural changes to a higher species' mobility arriving on the growin layer at higher temperatures. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed that the total intensity of visible light emission increased. A systematic blueshift of the centroid of the wide PL peak was observed following the increase of optical gap. 2 This is a consequence of their unique properties inherited from the combined properties of binary substructures, silicon carbide (SiC), silicon nitride (SiN), and carbonitride (CN). On the one hand, the durability and hardness of SiN structures cannot compete with those of carbon-based hard counterparts such as diamond-like carbon (DLC), CN, and SiC materials.3 On the other hand, carbon-based films do not offer the required properties for current optical designs, 4 while SiN thin films have been considered as the basis for several optoelectronic devices. 5 The protective properties of SiC x N y materials appear as an intermediate matrix to meet the demands in hard coating technology and concurrently, the tunability of SiC x N y 's electrical and optical properties raises its interest in the field of Photonics. SiC x N y structures have appeal to researchers for wear-resistant 6 and corrosion-resistant coatings, 7 and recently, for silicon-based anode materials in lithium ion batteries. 8 In addition, SiC x N y structures are used for gate dielectrics in thin film transistors 9 and diffusion barriers.10 They appear to broaden the optical parameter space required for the application of ultraviolet (UV) detectors 11,12 and the passivation layer in the third generation "all-silicon" tandem solar cells. 13,14 To this end, Chen et al. reported a direct bandgap of 3.8 eV for c-Si 2 N 4 C 15 and Azam et al. 16 investigated the tunability of the bandgap depending on the dominant phase present in the SiC x N y layer. We previously showed that the visible photoluminescence (PL) emission from ...

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Carbon‐Rich Plasma‐Deposited Silicon Oxycarbonitride Films Derived from 4‐(Trimethylsilyl)morpholine as a Novel Single‐Source Precursor

Ermakova,

Tsyrendorzhieva,

Mareev

et al. 2024

ChemPlusChem

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4‐(trimethylsilyl)morpholine O(CH 2CH 2) 2NSi(CH3) 3 (TMSM) was investigated as a single‐source precursor for SiCNO films synthesis. Optical emission spectroscopy of plasma generated from TMSM/He, TMSM/H 2, and TMSM/NH 3 gas mixtures revealed the presence of N 2, CH, H, CN, and CO species. The last two are suggested to be responsible for the lowering of carbon concentration in the films in comparison with the precursor. The refractive index ranged from 1.5 to 2.0, and bandgap varied from 2.0 to 4.6 eV, which pointed that some of the films can be used as antireflective coatings in silicon photovoltaic cell technologies and electronic devices.

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Annealing of silicon carbonitride nanostructured thin films: interdependency of hydrogen content, optical, and structural properties

Cited by 18 publications

References 53 publications

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Improved by Nitrogen for All-Silicon Solar Cells

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Improved by Nitrogen for All-Silicon Solar Cells

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Carbon‐Rich Plasma‐Deposited Silicon Oxycarbonitride Films Derived from 4‐(Trimethylsilyl)morpholine as a Novel Single‐Source Precursor

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