An investigation on the effect of high partial pressure of hydrogen on the nanocrystalline structure of silicon carbide thin films prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

•nc-SiH:H are deposited by radiofrequency magnetron technique (RFMS).•RFMS is a simple and promising method to grow nc-SiC:H films.•H2 dilution in the gas mixture strongly affects the growth of nc-SiC:H films.•The nanocrystalline silicon is present in all series with a variable crystallite size.

The aim of the study reported in this paper is to investigate the role of the high partial pressure of hydrogen introduced during the growth of nanocrystalline silicon carbide thin films (nc-SiC:H). For this purpose, we report the preparation as well as spectroscopic studies of four series of nc-SiC:H obtained by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at high partial pressure of hydrogen by varying the percentage of H2 in the gas mixture from 70% to 100% at common substrate temperature (TS = 500 °C). The effects of the dilution on the structural changes and the chemical bonding of the different series have been studied using Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy. For this range of hydrogen dilution, two groups of films were obtained. The first group is characterized by the dominance of the crystalline phase and the second by a dominance of the amorphous phase. This result confirms the multiphase structure of the grown nc-SiC:H thin films by the coexistence of the SiC network, carbon-like and silicon-like clusters. Furthermore, infrared results show that the SiC bond is the dominant absorption peak and the carbon atom is preferentially bonded to silicon. The maximum value obtained of the crystalline fraction is about 77%, which is relatively important compared to other results obtained by other techniques. In addition, the concentration of CHnCHn bonds was found to be lower than that of SiHnSiHn for all series.Raman measurements revealed that the crystallization occurs in all series even at 100% H2 dilution suggesting that high partial pressure of hydrogen favors the formation of silicon nanocrystallites (nc-Si). The absence of both the longitudinal acoustic band and the transverse optical band indicate that the crystalline phase is dominant.

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