Chemical Bonding in Composite SiN_x/Diamond-Like Carbon Films Prepared by Filter Cathodic Arc Deposition of Graphite Incorporated with Radio Frequency Sputtering of Silicon Nitride

Abstract

SiN x and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were prepared simultaneously on Si substrates by the RF magnetron sputtering of a silicon nitride (Si3N4) target and the filtered cathodic arc (FCA) deposition of graphite, respectively. The RF power was fixed at 100 W, while the arc current of graphite for the FCA deposition was varied from 20 to 80 A. The structure of composite SiN x /DLC films was investigated by Raman spectroscopy. The chemical composition and chemical state of the films were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results revealed that the atomic concentration of carbon (C) increased, while those of silicon (Si) and nitrogen (N) decreased with increasing arc current. In addition, the sp3 content in the composite films was found to increase with the arc current. This result indicates that the structure and property of the composite films can be controlled according to their required applications by varying the arc current.

Influence of Nitrogen Adsorption of Doped Ta on Characteristics of SiNx‐Based Resistive Random Access Memory

“…The scanning of Si 2p signal is shown in Figure . According to the result, the undoped SiN x thin film has only one peak at 102.7 eV, whereas the Ta:SiN x film has another peak at about 99 eV, corresponding to Si—Si bond, which indicates that there is a certain amount of Si DBs in the film …”

Probing the Role of an Atomically Thin SiNx Interlayer on the Structure of Ultrathin Carbon Films

“…The C 1s core level spectra of all samples showed four peaks #1, #2, #3 and #4 at 284.1 ± 0.1 eV, 284.9 eV, 286.2 ± 0.1 eV and 287.9 ± 0.1 eV, respectively, assigned to sp 2 C, sp 3 C, C–O and C = O bonding, respectively 2 19 20 21 . In addition, a fifth peak (#5) was observed only in CM3a/4SiN12C at ~283.0 eV, which corresponds to Si-C bonding 17 18 21 . Similarly, the Co 2p 3/2 core level spectra of all samples showed four peaks #1, #2, #3 and #4 at 778.0 ± 0.1 eV, 779.2 ± 0.1 eV, 780.3 ± 0.3 eV and 781.5 ± 0.2 eV, respectively, which can be attributed to Co-Co (metallic cobalt), Co-oxide (cobalt oxide as in Co 2 O 3 ), Co-oxide/hydroxide (such as CoO, Co 3 O 4 , CoOOH or Co(OH) 2 ) and Co-oxide/hydroxide (such as CoO, Co 3 O 4 , Co(OH) 2 ), respectively 21 22 23 24 .…”

“…5m and 5n show the Si 2p and N 1s core level spectra of sample CM3a/4SiN12C taken at TOA of 65°. The Si 2p core level spectrum revealed four constituent peaks #1, #2, #3 and #4 at 99.4 eV, 100.6 eV, 101.5 eV and 102.8 eV respectively, ascribed to Si-Si, Si-C, Si-N and Si-O/Si-N-O bonding, respectively 17 21 29 . On the other hand, the N 1 s spectrum showed five constituent peaks in which three peaks #1, #2, and #3 at 397.7 eV, 398.9 eV and 400.4 eV were attributed to Si-N, sp 3 C-N and sp 2 C-N bonding, respectively 29 30 .…”

“…Nevertheless, when used together, the SiN x and FCVA-deposited carbon in one structure may show promising properties due to their synergistic effect. Recently, Bunnak et al 17 18 prepared composite SiN x /DLC films by the FCVA (for DLC) and radio frequency (RF) sputtering (for SiN x ) techniques, and found that SiN x /DLC films revealed better structural and mechanical properties than single-layer DLC. However, their work investigated ~10 nm thick films, which is far beyond the current thickness requirement of COC on magnetic storage media.…”

“…The understanding of how the application of an atomically thin SiN x (0.4 nm) interlayer influences the interfacial bonding and structure of ultrathin carbon films lies at the core of this study. Given their ability to probe the structure of ultrathin DLC films, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) 2 3 4 8 9 10 11 12 17 18 are employed as spectroscopic characterization tools for structural analysis.…”