INFRARED AND X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY STUDIES OF AS-PREPARED AND FURNACE-ANNEALED RADIOFREQUENCY SPUTTERED AMORPHOUS-SILICON CARBIDE FILMS

The effects of annealing on the structural properties of radio-frequen cy sputtered amorphous silicon carbide films prepared under different hydrogen partial pressures (P-H) were investigated. Infrared (IR) resu lts of the as-prepared films suggest that as P-H increases, more hydro gen is incorporated into the film to form the Si-H and C-H bonds and l ess silicon and carbon atoms are available to form the Si-C bonds. X-r ay photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results of the as-prepared films a gree with the IR results in that the percent of Si-C decreases and the percent of Si-H and C-H increases as P-H increases. IR and XPS result s of the annealed films suggest that as the annealing temperature incr eases, the dangling Si and C bonds will combine to form the Si-C bonds for the unhydrogenated samples. The increase in Si-C bonds for the hy drogenated samples is more likely to be due to the formation of Si-C b onds from the breaking up of the Si-H and C-H bonds. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.