Study of structural and electronic environments of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbonitride (a-SiCN:H) films deposited by hot wire chemical vapor deposition

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbon nitride (a-SiCN:H) thin films were deposited by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) using SiH4, CH4, NH3 and H2 as precursors. The effects of the H2 dilution on structural and chemical bonding of a-SiCN:H has been investigated by Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Increasing the H2 flow rate in the precursor gas more carbon is introduced into the a-SiCN:H network resulting in decrease of silicon content in the film from 41 at.% to 28.8 at.% and sp2 carbon cluster increases when H2 flow rate is increased from 0 to 20 sccm.