AMORPHOUS SILICON-CARBON FILMS PREPARED BY REACTIVE EVAPORATION

An ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) technique, based on reactive ev aporation using hydrogen/methane gas mixture, has been used for the pr eparation of a-Si1-xCx:H films. Measurements are reported on the compo sition, optical gap, infrared vibrational absorption bands and on the electrical dark-conductivity temperature dependence to verify the reli ability of this deposition method. On increasing the compositional par ameter x up to 0.35, the IR results show an increasing hydrogenation a nd the presence of Si-CH3 units in addition to the ones with the carbo n fully coordinated with the silicon, while the optical-gap and the da rk-conductivity activation energies reached the values of 2.44 eV and 0.77 eV, respectively.