Hydrogen effusion from highly-ordered near-stoichiometric a-SiC:H

Abstract In this work, highly-ordered close-to-stoichiometry a-SiC:H alloys deposited by PECVD under the deposition conditions of a `silane-starving regime' and strong hydrogen dilution were characterized by gas effusion experiments. The results show that films deposited under these conditions are more stable than conventional materials showing a hydrogen effusion peak shifted to higher temperatures and almost no hydrocarbon effusion. This is an indication of preferential removal of less stable H and CHn radicals during growth resulting in a more compact material with reduced density of C–H and Si–H bonds as compared to conventionally deposited a-SiC:H films. The effects of varying deposition parameters, like substrate temperature, rf power density and hydrogen dilution ratio on the effusion spectra are analyzed.