Phase and microstructure investigations of boron nitride thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry in the visible and infrared spectral range

Abstract

Frank, "Phase and microstructure investigations of boron nitride thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry in the visible and infrared spectral range" (1997 Spectroscopic ellipsometry over the spectral range from 700 to 3000 cm Ϫ1 and from 1.5 to 3.5 eV is used to simultaneously determine phase and microstructure of polycrystalline hexagonal and cubic boron nitride thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering on ͑100͒ silicon. The results are obtained from a single microstructure-dependent model for both infrared and visible-light thin-film anisotropic dielectric functions. The optical behavior of high c-BN content thin films is described by an effective medium approximation. We obtain the amount of h-BN within high c-BN content thin films. A thin oriented nucleation layer between the silicon substrate and the high c-BN content layer is demonstrated. The preferential arrangement of the grain c axes within the h-BN thin films are found to be dependent on the growth parameters. The results from the infrared and visible spectral range ellipsometry model are compared to each other and found to be highly consistent. © 1997 American Institute of Physics. ͓S0021-8979͑97͒06618-8͔

In situ infrared and visible-light ellipsometric investigations of boron nitride thin films at elevated temperatures

“…8 Infrared ͑IR͒ 4,[9][10][11][12][13][14] and Raman spectroscopy, [15][16][17][18][19][20] as well as IR and visible-light ͑VIS͒ spectroscopic ellipsometry ͑SE͒ [21][22][23][24][25] were used to investigate BN thin-film optical and structural properties. It was demonstrated that polarized IR reflection ͑PIRR͒ measurements, 26,27 IR-SE [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and VIS-SE 25,30 are useful techniques to resolve the BN microstructure from the thin-film optical properties.…”

Dielectric function of amorphous tantalum oxide from the far infrared to the deep ultraviolet spectral region measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry

“…Prior to application of sputter-deposited films it is necessary to understand the relation between microstructure, growth conditions, and resulting electrical and optical properties. A through optical study of such microstructure related effects was shown previously for magnetron sputtered boron nitride thin films [18][19][20][21] Tantalum oxide films ͑TOF͒ have been grown by a large variety of physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition ͑CVD͒ processes, including ion beam sputtering, 22,23 magnetron sputtering, 2,7,9,24 ͑low temperature͒ thermal oxidation, 9,25 anodization, 26 ion plating, 1,27 electronbeam evaporation, 4,27 laser ablation, 28,29 low pressure CVD, 14,30 photo-CVD, 31,32 atomic layer deposition, 33 and plasma-enhanced CVD. 12,16,34 A metalorganic solution deposition technique 6 was also used to grow TOF.…”

In situ ellipsometry growth characterization of dual ion beam deposited boron nitride thin films

“…20 The h-BN optical response was recently investigated by ex situ multiple angle-of-incidence spectroscopic ellipsometry, and found to be anisotropic. 19,20 This anisotropy, however, is difficult to observe at the single angle of incidence used for in situ ellipsometry. The optical responses of both h-BN (n h ), and c-BN (n c ) are treated as isotropic in this work.…”

“…Ex situ ellipsometry was recently used to determine the isotropic c-BN ͑e.g., at ϭ571 nm: n c ϭ2.1͒, and anisotropic h-BN ͑n e ϭ1.65, n o ϭ2.1͒ optical constants and thin-film layer structure of magnetron sputtered BN. [19][20][21] . It was observed that the h-BN and c-BN thin-film optical constants are very similar to their bulk values.…”