Structure and composition investigation of RPECVD SiCN and LPCVD BCN films

The silicon carbonitride films have been synthesised by RPECVD using a mixture of ammonia, helium and hexamethyldisilazane Si₂NH(CH₃)₆ as a volatile single-source precursor. The boron carbonitride thin films have been grown by LPCVD using triethylamine borane complex N(C₂H₅)₃·BH₃ both with and without ammonia. Different techniques such as IR and Raman spectroscopy, ellipsometry, XPS, EDS, SEM, HREM, SAED and XRD using synchrotron radiation were used to study physical and chemical properties and structure. These films consist nanocrystals with size of 2-9 nm distributed in amorphous matrix. Analysis of IR spectroscopy and XPS data of the SiCN films showed that silicon atoms form chemical bonds with nitrogen and carbon atoms.