Microstructure analysis on polycrystalline 3C–SiC thin films

Amorphous to crystalline phase transition in pulsed laser deposited silicon carbide

“…In addition, all spectra show a small dip at 967 cm À1 corresponding to the transparent longitudinal optical (LO) phonon mode, though it is most evident for the film grown at 950 8C. The occurrence of this dip is related to the Berreman effect [49] and has been also observed for crystalline SiC films [32,42] as well as small particles and ultra-fine powders of SiC [35,50]. However, close inspection of the FTIR spectra may indicate a double peak structure that could due to the presence of amorphous and crystalline phases of SiC in the layers [51], but their respective contributions to the FTIR signal are clearly unresolved and may thus difficult to quantify in a meaningful manner.…”

“…It was also found that the EPR signal is independent of sample orientation with respect to the magnetic field, even for samples deposited at high T d , where the presence of large crystallites was indicated by XRD and AFM. This suggests that the spectra are powderlike with paramagnetic centers located within the amorphous or disordered phases [42] that are rich in bond-angle disorder and bond distortions. Regarding the variation of spin density with T d , two regimes can be noted: a steep decrease by one order of magnitude from 1.7 Â 10 20 to 1.8 Â 10 19 spins/cm 3 when T d is varied from 400 to 700 8C, followed by a much slower rate of change as the spin density reaches a value of 0.8 Â 10 19 spins/ cm 3 at 950 8C.…”

Nanocrystalline cubic silicon carbide films prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition using SiH4/CH4/H2 at a low substrate temperature

“…As shown in Fig. 2, Raman spectrum of bulk 3C-SiC showed sharp peaks at 797 and 970 cm À1 , due to transversal optical (TO) and longitudinal optical (LO) modes, respectively [2,8]. It has been reported that Raman peaks of SiC nanowires shifted toward a lower wavenumber region (red-shift) and broadened with respect to those of bulk 3C-SiC [9].…”

“…It is well known that high temperature (>1000°C) is required for fabrication of crystalline SiC [1,2]. However, a low-temperature deposition technique is desirable from the view point of widening its application to devices such as solar cells and thin film transistors.…”

Preparation of Nanocrystalline Silicon Carbide Thin Films by Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition at Various Filament Temperature

“…The use of crystalline SiC as p-layer in thin-film-type silicon solar cells, instead of amorphous SiC:H, leads to improvement of solar cell performance. However, manufacturing temperature of crystalline SiC is usually required to be above 1000 o C [1,2], which is much higher than that of cell manufacturing process and degrades cell performance. Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) is a very promising method for preparing thin-film materials [3].…”