Structural and morphological studies on SiO N thin films

Abstract In this work, the structure and morphology of silicon oxynitride films deposited by the PECVD technique were studied. The films were deposited under two different conditions: (a) SiO x N y with chemical compositions varying from SiO 2 to Si 3 N 4 via the control of a N 2 O + N 2 + SiH 4 gas mixture, and (b) Si-rich SiO x N y films via the control of a N 2 O + SiH 4 gas mixture. The analyses were performed using X-ray near edge spectroscopy (XANES) at the Si-K edge, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). For samples with chemical composition varying from SiO 2 to Si 3 N 4 , the diffraction patterns obtained by TEM exhibited changes with the chemical composition, in agreement with the XANES results. For silicon-rich silicon oxynitride samples, the formation of a-Si clusters was observed and the possibility of obtaining Si nanocrystals after annealing depending on the composition and temperature was realized.