Properties of silicon-carbon-cluster-assembled films

We have investigated SiC films, obtained by the low-energy cluster beam dep osition (LECBD) technique, and using AFM Raman and XPS spectroscopies. We p roduce these films at room temperature and in an ultrahigh vacuum environme nt to protect them from the pollution. The inner morphology of the clusters is close to an amorphous-like structure. However, most of the theoretical models predict an sp(3) hyridization, in disagreement with our experimental results. We find that the films are composed mainly by free components for med by rich silicon, rich carbon, and rich SiC regions, respectively. In ou r case, the mean hybridization of the rich carbon region is mainly sp(n)-li ke with 2 < n < 3.