Structure and Photoluminescence Properties of Silicon Oxycarbide Thin Films Deposited by the Rf Reactive Sputtering

Abstract

Silicon oxycarbide ( SiCO ) thin films were prepared by the RF reactive sputtering technique on n-type silicon substrates with the target of sintered silicon carbide ( SiC ), and high purity oxygen was used as the reactant gas. The as-deposited films were annealed at temperatures of 600°C, 800°C, and 1000°C under nitrogen ambient, respectively. The films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) spectrophotometer. The results show that annealing temperature plays an important role in the structure and photoluminescence of the films. The temperature 600°C is the most favorable annealing temperature for SiO 2 crystallization and the formation of 6H- SiC crystal phase in the SiCO films. The intense PL peaks located at 375 nm and 470 nm are observed at room temperature. The origin of the PL was discussed.

Effect of Mesoporous Silica as a Solid Precursor on the Properties of Silicon Oxycarbide Thin Films via Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition

“…Specifically, absorbance bands at 650 cm À 1 , associated with SiÀ Si functional groups, and 1110 cm À 1 , corresponding to SiÀ O asymmetric stretching vibrational mode, are observed. [33,34] This significant observation indicates that the inclusion of mesoporous silica tablets as precursors contributes to the presence of additional silicon-based functional groups. [34] For a more detailed analysis, figure 9 shows a deconvolution of the broadbands spanning from 1250 to 900 cm À 1 .…”

Simulation of Silicon Oxycarbide Waveguides for Shorter Band Photonics

“…It has optical characteristics and has found major applications in different fields of technologies to become an enabling material in the field of photonic integrated circuits. These application includes lithium-ion batteries [8], light emitters [9], filters [10], interlayer dielectrics [11], and [12], photoluminescence [13], Plasmonics [14] and others [15], and [16]. The most enabling characteristic of SiOC is that it has a widely tunable refractive index that ranges from 1.45 to 3.2 [17], and [18].…”

Integrated photonic devices with silicon oxycarbide

“…A high refractive index is useful for the large integration scale of photonic devices on a single chip as the light can be tightly confined in waveguide core, thus enabling smaller bending radii 1 . SiOC has received significant attention in the scientific community and it has been studied for a variety of applications including Li-ion batteries 2 , photoluminescence 3 , electroluminescence 4 , and low-k interlayer dielectric 5 . Despite excellent material qualities, SIOC is yet not explored for realizing passive devices for integrated photonics.…”