Silicon Carbon Nitride Films Grown by Hot-Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition

The silicon carbon nitride (SiCN) films were successfully synthesized on silicon substrate using SiH4/CH4/ H2/N2 mixture by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) without bias. The resultant films consist of many micro-rods with mean diameter about 3μm and lengths up to 35μm measured by SEM, and the micro-rods are built with blocks of nanocrys-talline SiCN grown in amorphous matrix observed by HRTEM. Further SAED and XRD analysis indicate that the structure of SiCN nanocrystal is similar to that of α-Si3N4 with small deviations. XPS and FTIR were employed to investigate the compositions of SiCN films, indicating the presence of Si, C, N, O and H, and a chemical bonding network of C=N, N-Si and N-C bonds in SiCN films, but the C-Si bonds absent. From these results, we suggest that the SiCN growth may mainly include two processes: the growth of α-Si3N4 clusters and the substitution of Si atoms by C atoms.