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Growth of Wide-Bandgap Nanocrystalline Silicon Carbide Films by HWCVD: Influence of Filament Temperature on Structural and Optoelectronic Properties

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Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) thin films have been deposited using a hot-wire chemical vapor deposition technique on quartz substrates with a mixture of silane, methane, and hydrogen gases as precursors at a reasonably high deposition rate of approximately 15 nm/min to 50 nm/min. The influence of the filament temperature (T F) on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the SiC film has been investigated using x-ray diffraction, Raman scattering, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible–near infrared transmission spectroscopy, and dark conductivity (σ d) studies. Films deposited at low T F (1800°C to 1900°C) are amorphous in nature with high density of Si–Si bonds, whereas high-T F (≥2000°C) films are nanocrystalline embedded in an amorphous SiC matrix with higher concentration of Si–C bonds and negligible concentration of Si–Si bonds. The bandgap (E g) varies from 2.5 eV to 3.1 eV and σ d (50°C) from ∼10−9 Ω−1 cm−1 to 10−1 Ω−1 cm−1 as T F is increased from 1900°C to 2200°C. This increase in E g and σ d is due to microstructural changes and unintentional oxygen doping of the films.

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Acknowledgements

The work reported here is supported by the Board for Research in Fusion Science & Technology (BRFST). We are very grateful to Dr. D.M. Phase, UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Indore for XPS measurements, Dr. Manoranjan Kar, Department of Physics, IIT Patna for XRD measurements, and the Central Instrument Facility, IIT Guwahati for Raman measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India

    Himanshu S. Jha, Mukesh Singh & Pratima Agarwal

  2. Center for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India

    Asha Yadav & Pratima Agarwal

  3. Indus Synchrotron Utilization Division, RRCAT, Indore, 452013, India

    Shailendra Kumar

Authors
  1. Himanshu S. Jha
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  2. Asha Yadav
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  3. Mukesh Singh
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  5. Pratima Agarwal
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Correspondence to Pratima Agarwal.

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Jha, H.S., Yadav, A., Singh, M. et al. Growth of Wide-Bandgap Nanocrystalline Silicon Carbide Films by HWCVD: Influence of Filament Temperature on Structural and Optoelectronic Properties. J. Electron. Mater. 44, 922–928 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3580-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3580-9

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