Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-Si_1-xC_x:H) films were fabricated in the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system by using silane (SiH₄) and two kind of carbon sources, methane (CH₄) and xylene (C₈H₁₀), respectively. The optical band gap of methane-made a-Si_{1- x}C_x:H was varied from 1.9 eV to 2.6 eV while that of xylene-made a-Si_1-xC_x:H could be extended to 3.5 eV. Fourier transform infrared spectra demonstrated the existence of aromatic ring in xylene-made a-Si_1-xC_x:H, which is much different from the carbon configuration of methane-made a-Si_1-xC_x:H. Visible light emission at room temperature was observed from xylene-made a-Si_1-xC_x:H films. The photoluminescence peak shifted from 630 nm (1.97 eV) to 450 nm (2.75 eV) when the optical band gap of samples increased from 2.3 eV to 3.5 eV. KrF pulse laser with wavelength of 248 nm was used to crystallize these two kinds of films at room temperature. For both samples the conductivities can reach 10^-5S/cm and are enhanced by over four orders of magnitude.

Date Published: 20 February 1998
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 3175, Third International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications, (20 February 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.300726

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3175:
Third International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications
Shixun Zhou; Yongling Wang; Yi-Xin Chen; Shuzheng Mao, Editor(s)