Ultrafast thermal plasma physical vapor deposition of thick SiC films

Thick silicon carbide films have been successfully deposited at a deposition rate of 125 nm/s on stationary graphite substrates by the thermal plasma physical vapor deposition technique, with ultrafine SiC powder fed into a hybrid plasma jet and completely evaporated. The relationship between the processing parameters and the morphology, deposition rate, composition and crystal structure has been investigated under the typical conditions of substrate temperature in the range of 1400–1700 °C and chamber pressure of 250 Torr, and compared with the results of rotating substrate deposition at the substrate temperature of around 750 °C. It was found that the deposition rate and composition showed different processing parameter dependences for rotating substrate deposition and stationary substrate deposition. The films showed dense cross-sections or cauliflower-like structures depending on the deposition conditions.

©2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.     

On the preparation of PLZT thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Polycrystalline PLZT thin films have been grown onto glass slides substrate, from a sintered stoichiometric 9/65/35 commercial target, by using a Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm, 7 ns, 10 Hz). The substrate temperature and oxygen pressure were varied during the deposition, as was the post-deposition annealing temperature in order to achieve stoichiometric films with a perovskite structure and with a composition near the ratio 9/65/35. Perovskite PLZT is formed around the substrate temperature of 500°C and oxygen pressure of ∼0.5 mbar after annealing at 580°C during 90 min. The pyrochlore structure, on the other hand, is always formed in the films during the deposition. However, this structure disappear for annealing temperatures above 550°C, for the films grown at oxygen pressure in the range 0.5–1 mbar and temperature deposition above 450°C. The degree of crystallinity and the structure present in the films is correlated with the deposition conditions. The influence of post-deposition annealing conditions on the formation of perovskite PLZT structure and optical transparency of the films is also discussed.     

Fabrication of highly c-axis textured ZnO thin films piezoelectric transducers by RF sputtering

The influence of fabrication parameters on ZnO film properties has been analyzed through conducting several experiment processes to develop an appropriate deposition condition for obtaining highly c-axis textured films. A transducer with the structure of Al/ZnO/Al/Si was fabricated at low deposition rate and under a temperature of 380 °C in a mixture of gases Ar:O₂ = 1:3, and RF power of 178 W. Pt/Ti was employed as the bottom electrode of the transducer fabricated in a suitable substrate temperature, which starts increasing at 380 °C with an increment of 20 °C for each 2 h stage of the deposition. Highly c-axis textured ZnO films have been successfully deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrate under feasible conditions, including RF power of 178 W, substrate temperature of 380 °C, deposition pressure of 1.3 Pa and Ar:O₂ gas flow ratio of 50%. These conditions have been proposed and confirmed through investigating the influences of the sputtering parameters, such as substrate temperature, RF power and Ar:O₂ gas flow ratio, on the properties of ZnO films.     

Substrate temperature dependent physical properties of sprayed Zn0.76Mg0.24O films

The composition, microstructural and opto-electronic properties of Zn_1?x Mg _x O thin films grown by spray pyrolysis have been studied. The films were prepared on glass substrates at different substrate temperatures in the range, 200–350 °C for a fixed magnesium composition of x = 0.24. The films showed the predominant (002) reflection corresponding to the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. The preferred orientation doesn’t change with the deposition temperature. The films prepared at 300 °C showed good crystallinity with an average surface roughness of 6.2 nm. The optical studies revealed that the optical transmittance increased slightly with the increase of substrate temperature of the films. The variation of energy band gap, photoluminescence and electrical resistivity of the grown layers was also studied.     

R.f. plasma deposition from hexamethyldisiloxane-oxygen mixtures

Hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) has been used as a precursor for the deposition of silicon dioxide films at low substrate temperature (25–400°C) by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition processing. Effects of the partial pressure of oxygen in the discharge on the deposition rate and the composition of the films are investigated. The deposition rate is found to decrease with increasing oxygen concentration in the HMDSO/O₂ mixture. The chemical composition of the formed films was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Over 40% of the oxygen in the gas phase the carbon content of films deposited from HMDSO/O₂ mixtures is less than 5%.     

PECVD下基底温度对SiC薄膜形态、成分及生长速度的影响

在单晶Si和多晶Cu基底表面上使用等离子体增强化学气相沉积(PECVD)方法沉积了SiC薄膜. 通过高分辨透射电子显微镜(HRTEM)、X射线光电子能谱仪(XPS)及扫描电子显微镜(SEM)研究基底温度对SiC薄膜成分、结构及生长速度的影响规律。结果表明: 在60~500℃基底温度下制备的SiC薄膜均为非晶态薄膜, 薄膜的生长速度随基底温度的升高而线性降低, 并且在相同沉积条件下, 薄膜在Si基底上的生长速度要高于Cu基底。此外, 薄膜中的硅碳原子比随基底温度的升高而降低, 当基底温度控制在350℃左右时, 可以获得硅碳比为1:1较理想的SiC薄膜。     

Preparation of ceria films by spray pyrolysis method

The deposition of CeO₂ films on fused-silica substrates by spray pyrolysis of a water–ethanol solution of a cerium nitrate precursor has been studied. Polycrystalline films have been obtained at a substrate temperature of 300–450°C after annealing of the deposit in air at temperatures in the range 350–500°C. It has been established that the best uniform ceria films with nanometric scale grains are prepared at a substrate temperature of 400°C with 0.5 h annealing of the deposit at 500°C. At lower spraying temperatures large CeO₂ crystallites have been observed on the film surface along with the fine grains. When the substrate temperature exceeds 400°C, numerous cracks caused by thermal stresses appear in the films.     

Deposition rate dependence of coercivity in vaccum evaporated CoCr films

Deposition rate dependence of perpendicular coercivity Hcl in Cocr evaporated films at the deposition rate ranging from 0.4nm/s to 400nm/s is studied. Hcl increases with decreasing deposition rate as well as with increasing substrate temperature. A High Hcl over 500 Oe, which has ever been obtained only at a substrate temperature over 250°C when deposition rate is high(400nm/s), is obtained at a substrate temperature of 150°C under deposition rate of 2nm/s. "Shoulder" in the hysteresis loop disappears as Hcl exceeds 400 Oe. Therefore to decrease the deposition rate and to increase the substrate temperature have the same effect on Hcl. Saturation magnetization of the films with the same Cr concentration increases with decreasing deposition rate, and it is suggested that the degree of Cr segregation increases with decreasing deposition rate. Hcl is independent of the background pressure when the relative pressure, the quotient of (background pressure/deposition rate), is between 2×10^-8and 5×10^-6torr/(nm/s). From the results above, it is clarified that the difference of deposition rate between vacuum evaporation and sputtering is one of the major reasons for the difference of Hcl between the two.     

Ellipsometric studies of microscopic surface roughness of CdS thin films

Analysis of changes in surface roughness of CdS thin films with preparation temperature was carried out using variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE). The films studied were prepared by spray pyrolysis technique, in the substrate temperature range 200–360°C. The VASE measurements were carried out in the visible region below the band gap (E _g=2·4eV) of CdS so as to reduce absorption by the film. The thickness of the films was in the range 500–600 nm. Bruggeman’s effective medium theory was used for analysis of the surface roughness of the film. The roughness of the film had a high value (∼ 65 nm) for films prepared at low temperature (200°C) and decreased with increase in substrate temperature. This reached minimum value (∼ 27 nm) in the temperature range 280–300°C. Thereafter roughness increased slowly with temperature. The growth rate of the films was calculated for different temperature ranges. It was found that the deposition rate decreases with the increase in substrate temperature and have an optimum value at 300°C. Above this temperature deposition rate decreased sharply. The scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the film also showed that the film prepared at 280–300°C had very smooth surface texture.     

Zinc vacancy mediated structural phase transition and photoluminescence in nanocrystalline ZnS thin films

Nanocrystalline thin films of zinc sulphide were prepared on glass substrate at various deposition temperatures by thermal evaporation technique. The variation of the structural and optical properties of films deposited at various substrate temperatures was investigated in detailed. X-ray diffraction spectra showed that films deposited at 300 and 400 °C are polycrystalline in nature having cubic and both cubic and wurtzite structure, respectively. However, film deposited at temperature of 200 °C was found to be amorphous in nature. The ultra-violet and visible absorption studies showed that the band gap of films increases with increase in deposition temperatures. Photoluminescence spectra displayed emission near 396 and 444 nm, which arises due to zinc vacancies and sulphur vacancies, respectively and has been correlated to phase transition of the films.     

Structure,composition, and mechanical properties of thin films of transition metals diborides

The effect of the deposition conditions on the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of thin films of diborides of transition metals that have been produced by high frequency magnetron sputtering. It has been shown that depending on the applied bias voltage and substrate temperature coatings of various structures are formed: from amorphous-like to nanocrystalline. Under the optimal energy conditions (bias voltage 50 V and substrate temperature 500°C) superstoichiometric thin films of transition metals diborides of grain sizes 20–30 nm, hardness 44 GPa, and anomalously high recovering of the imprint depth have been produced.     

Spray pyrolytic deposition of CuBiS2 thin films

Thin films of CuBiS₂ have been deposited on glass substrates using spray pyrolysis technique. The effect of substrate temperature on the growth of CuBiS₂ thin films is studied in the range of 150 to 400°C. The best quality films are grown at substrate temperature 250°C with 0·1 M composition. Other preparative parameters like spray rate, pressure, height of the solution, etc are optimized with respect to substrate temperature. Some optical and electrical properties of CuBiS₂ films are also studied and reported.     

SnO2:F films synthesized by chemical vapour deposition technique using hydrofluoric acid as doping material

Highly transparent and highly conducting films of SnO₂:F were prepared by chemical vapour deposition technique. The films prepared at 350°C substrate temperature and 2·5 lit. min⁻¹ flow rate of oxygen showed maximum figure of merit. The optimum doping concentration of fluorine was 1·02 wt%. The Hall experiment showed that the films prepared at optimum conditions had high carrier concentration and high mobility.     

Pulsed laser deposition of conductive indium tin oxide thin films

Thin indium tin oxide (ITO) films have been grown on quartz glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The influence of ablation target composition and deposition conditions on the growth rate, optical transmission spectra, and carrier mobility and concentration of the films has been examined. The average surface roughness of the ITO films grown at substrate temperatures above 300°C is 2 nm. The films grown at an oxygen partial pressure of 5 mTorr using ablation targets with Sn/(In + Sn) = 5% possess high transmission (85-95%) in the visible range and low resistivity (1.8 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm).     

Growth of textured LiNbO3 thin film on Si (111) substrate by pulsed laser deposition

Highly c-axis oriented LiNbO₃ thin films have been deposited on Si (111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. A stoichiometric sintered LiNbO₃ is used as the target. The c-axis orientation and stoichiometry of LiNbO₃ films are strongly influenced by substrate temperature and oxygen pressure. The substrate temperature 600 °C and oxygen pressure 20–30 Pa are found to be optimized parameters for the growth of textured film. The results showed that the size and the density of droplets decreased with increasing substrate temperature, and droplets would disappear when substrate temperature is increased above 600 °C. The surface microstructures of LiNbO₃ films under optimized conditions are fine, uniform and dense. The AFM images ensured that the as-grown films are good enough to be integrated with the semiconductor devices.     

Electrodeposition and characterization of cuprous oxide

Films of cuprous oxide were electrodeposited potentiostatically and galvanostatically on a variety of substrates. The usable range of deposition parameters was determined and discussed. Uniform and adherent films of thickness up to 6 μm could be deposited galvanostatically and to higher values potentiostatically. The films were polycrystalline with grains of a few micrometers in size when deposited at 60 °C and one order of magnitude smaller when deposited at 49 °C. Regardless of the mode of deposition, the temperature of deposition and also the type of substrate, deposited films were highly oriented along the (100) plane parallel to the substrate surface. The composition of the films was found to be Cu₂O with an optical band gap of 1.95 eV.     

Effect of substrate temperature on structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were grown by the pulse laser deposition (PLD) method using Si (100) substrates at various substrate temperatures. The influence of the substrate temperature on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the ZnO thin films was investigated. All of the thin films showed c-axis growth perpendicular to the substrate surface. At a substrate temperature of 500 °C, the ZnO thin film showed the highest (002) peak with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.39°. The X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) study showed that Zn was in excess irrespective of the substrate temperature and that the thin film had a nearly stoichiometrical composition at a substrate temperature of 500 °C. The photoluminescence (PL) investigation showed that the narrowest UV FWHM of 15.8 nm and the largest ratio of the UV peak to the deep-level peak of 32.9 were observed at 500 °C. Hall effect measurement systems provided information about the carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity. At a substrate temperature of 500 °C, the Hall mobility was the value of 37.4 cm²/Vs with carrier concentration of 1.36 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and resistivity of 2.08 × 10⁻¹ Ω cm.     

Influence of substrate temperature and film thickness on the structure of reactively evaporated In2O3 films

Indium oxide films 25–550 Å thick were reactively evaporated at an oxygen pressure of about 0.27 Pa and at a substrate temperature between room temperature and 400°C. The dependence of the structure of the films on the substrate temperature and on the film thickness was studied using transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction. It was found that thick films (about 550 Å) were amorphous at room temperature, partially crystallized at 50–125°C and crystalline at 150–400°C. The crystallinity of the films deposited at 150–250°C also depended markedly on the film thickness. Very thin films about 25 Å thick were quasi-amorphous, but with increasing film thickness the amorphous phase transformed into a crystalline phase.The thermal transformation of the amorphous films after deposition was also studied. Amorphous films about 550 Å thick deposited at room temperature and 100°C crystallized at 230°C and 210°C respectively.     

Structure of chemically deposited polycrystalline-silicon films

The influence of the deposition conditions on the structure of chemically deposited, polycrystalline-silicon films has been examined. The films were deposited primarily onto oxidized silicon wafers by the thermal decomposition of silane over temperature and thickness ranges of 650°–1200°C and 0.6–15 microm, respectively. After an initial induction period, which exhibits an activation energy of about 1.0 eV, island-type nucleation was observed for deposition temperatures of 850° and 1025°C; however, no islands could be resolved for a deposition temperature of 650°C. Although {110}- and {111}-texture are both important in the thinner films, {110}-texture becomes dominant over most of the temperature range as the film thickness increases. The {100}-texture is important in thicker films deposited at higher temperatures. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that the grain size increases with increasing film thickness and deposition temperature, ranging from less than 0.05 microm to more than 1 microm in the films studied. An investigation of the influence of the initial stages of deposition on the development of the texture indicated that the highly twinned {110}-grains, once nucleated, grow most rapidly. An anomalous, low-temperature structure, the effect of the reactant gas, and the influence of the substrate have been briefly investigated.     

Epitaxy of cadmium telluride in a quasi-closed cell

The structure and morphology of epitaxial CdTe films obtained by the method of vacuum condensation in a quasi-closed cell on mica (muscovite) with substrate temperatures ranging from 50° to 650°C and evaporation temperatures of 400°–700°C and with various degrees of supersaturation and different gas phase compositions have been investigated. It has been shown that this method allows epitaxial films to be synthesized even at relatively low substrate temperatures (～50°C), and under conditions close to equilibrium ones it is possible to obtain epitaxial layers with a low density of figures of growth. The effect of an excess pressure of one component on the morphology and phase composition of the films has been studied. An excess pressure of cadmium over the substrate increases the relative rate of growth of crystallites in the [111] direction and promotes the growth of films of cubic modification with a more perfect structure. An excess pressure of tellurium has the reverse effect. Under conditions close to equilibrium ones (α≈1.05) we have observed the growth of CdTe films of cubic modification only, irrespective of the composition of the gas phase.