Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of silicon, germanium, and tin nitride thin films from metalorganic precursors

Abstract

Nearly stoichiometric silicon, germanium, and tin nitride thin films were deposited from the corresponding homoleptic dimethylamido complexes M ͑NMe 2 ͒ 4 ͑MϭSi, Ge, Sn; MeϭCH 3 ͒, and an ammonia plasma at low substrate temperatures ͑Ͻ400°C͒. Tin nitride films were also deposited from Sn ͑NMe 2 ͒ 4 and ammonia without plasma activation. The films showed little ͑Ͻfew at. %͒ or no carbon or oxygen contamination. The barrier properties of the silicon and germanium nitride films were evaluated by using backscattering spectrometry. Homoleptic dimethylamido silicon and germanium compounds are attractive alternatives to silane and germane for use in the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of nitride thin films.

Tin nitride thin films fabricated by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering at various nitrogen gas ratios

“…As the N 2 gas ratio increased, the portion of Sn 2+ increased compared to that of the species in region 1 shown in Table 2. The electronic configuration of Sn 2+ is [Kr]4d 10 5s 2 and that of Sn 4+ is [Kr]4d 10 . With more electron rich species (Sn 2+ ) in the system, the surface resistance of the Sn nitride film decreases.…”

“…Numerous methods to synthesize metal thin films are known such as atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [1,2,6,9], plasmaenhanced CVD [10], magnetron sputtering [11,12], reactive sputtering [13,14], and reactive radio frequency (RF) sputtering [3,5,15,16]. Among them, reactive RF magnetron sputtering is commonly used to obtain uniform thin films.…”

A systematic study of the nitridation of SnO2 nanowires grown by the vapor liquid solid mechanism

“…To date Sn 3 N 4 films have been grown by halide chemical vapor deposition [8,9], metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [10], sputtering [11][12][13][14] and ammonothermal synthesis [15,16]. However there are very few investigations on Sn 3 N 4 nanowires (NWs), which could be used as nanostructured materials for the fabrication of third generation solar cells.…”

Optical response of tin nitride thin films prepared by halide chemical vapor deposition under atmospheric pressure

“…texturing, confirming that the resulting films have the same structure as those prepared by the sputtering method. [11][12][13][14] The lattice constants a and c for the as-deposited SnN x films were estimated to be 0.368 nm and 0.528 nm, respectively, which are slightly shorter than the reported ones of 0.369 nm and 0.529 nm, respectively. 11 Also, it is worth noting that any trace of the peaks assigned to ␤-tin and tin oxide is not found.…”

“…6 Since then, various techniques, such as reactive sputtering, 7,8 reactive ion plating, 9 magnetron sputtering, 10,11 and plasmaenhanced, CVD has been examined for the preparation of the SnN x films. 12 However, studies on the vapor-phase deposition of SnN x films 13,14 under atmospheric pressure are few. Also, we have already applied this technique for the growth of other metal nitride films, such as iron nitride, [15][16][17][18] indium nitride, [19][20][21] and gallium nitride, 21 and confirmed that the resulting nitride films are of as high quality as those prepared by other techniques.…”