Effect of Nitrogen Plasma Afterglow on Amorphous Carbon Nitride Thin Films Deposited by Laser Ablation

Abstract

By employing pulsed laser deposition, amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN x ) thin films, were prepared on unheated Si (100). Investigation of compositional and structural modifications induced by microwave nitrogen plasma afterglow on amorphous carbon nitride thin films, has been carried out in the range of nitrogen pressure 10-1000 Pa. The role of nitrogen plasma afterglow on the physicochemical and structural characteristics of a-CN x was explored using the diagnostic techniques: Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Upon analyzing the Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectra, it is concluded that employing nitrogen plasma afterglow during the films deposition favors, in general, the increase in nitrogen content and the formation of sp 2 bonding in the a-CN x films. The analysis of scanning electron and atomic force microscopy images demonstrated that the films had a granular structure formed from particles coalesced together into cauliflower-like clusters and the particles size increased by increasing nitrogen pressure. A 2D atomic force microscopy line profile measurements provide evidence to a decrease in size of clusters using nitrogen plasma afterglow which could be due to the annihilation of excess vacancies and/or the elimination of grain boundaries. These analyses were found to be quite reliable to help understand the effects of microwave nitrogen plasma afterglow on amorphous carbon nitride thin films.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of a-CN films prepared by bias voltage assisted PLD with carbon nitride target

“…In fact, I D and I G decrease as the grain size increases [41]. It can be seen that the I D /I G ratio decreases at first and then increases with an increasing bias voltage and the minimum I D /I G ratio of 1.85 is obtained at − 40 V. According to A. Alkhawwam et al [42] and A. C. Ferrari et al [43], we can conclude that the increase in I D /I G ratio, the shift of the G and D peak positions towards higher frequencies, and the decrease in FWHM G with the increase of bias voltage can be attributed to the decrease in sp 3 bonding fraction and to the increase in the size of graphitic cluster. At a bias voltage of − 120 V, the high value of I D /I G and FWHM D of the film is attributed to the increasing bond angle disorder and indicates the increased degree of carbon network disorder [44,45].…”

The Antimicrobial Activity of Silver Nanoparticles in Ag/Ag2O Composites Synthesized by Oxygen Plasma Treatment of Silver Thin Films

“…The oxygen plasma stream was generated using a microwave SAIREM GMP 20 KEDS. More details about the plasma generation system are available in previous work [35][36][37]. Table 2 contains the conditions of oxygen plasma exposure for each sample.…”

Investigation of local thermodynamic equilibrium of laser induced Al2O3–TiC plasma in argon by spatially resolved optical emission spectroscopy

“…[1][2][3] Over the past twenty years, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has emerged as valuable technique used in many applications in analytical, academic and governmental laboratories in different scientific and technological fields such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of thin films, laser treatment of surfaces, qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis, and nanotechnology. [4][5][6][7] In ns-LIBS, a high-powered nanosecond laser pulse is focused on a solid, liquid, or gaseous sample, yielding a surface power density of order 10 8 -10 10 W/cm 2 . The free and loosely-bound electrons of the sample absorb energy from the laser pulse during hundreds of picoseconds through inverse Bremsstrahlung processes and release additional electrons through collisions.…”