Study of deposition parameters of reactive-sputtered Si3N4 thin films by optical emission spectroscopy

Plasma emission spectroscopy and optical properties of reactive-sputtered silicon oxynitride films

“…Typically, the highest refractive index in these curves corresponds to an oxygen-free state and therefore a fully nitride state. A predetermined N 2 :Ar flow ratio condition was selected from previous results [21]. The deposition parameters were fixed using a constant applied power of 70 W, a working pressure of 2.5 mTorr, and a N 2 :Ar flow ratio of 0.4.…”

“…Previous reports indicate that OES can be used to obtain information from the plasma emission and correlated to the deposition and the target poisoning process [21,23,38]. Typical spectra collected during the experiment are shown in the supplementary material (figure S1).…”

“…Some of these techniques include the use of quartz crystals to monitor the deposition rate or the use of non-invasive optical methods. Other authors have reported promising results by these methods, using transmittance and reflectance [18,19], spectroscopic ellipsometry [20,21], reflection highenergy electron diffraction [22], etc. Furthermore, the plasma that carries out the deposition process can be studied using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) [23][24][25].…”

“…Furthermore, the plasma that carries out the deposition process can be studied using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) [23][24][25]. Some protocols or criteria for the deposition of thin films with different materials [21,24], and even for metastable materials [25] have been established using OES through gathering information of the plasma species.…”