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Kinetics of hydrogen in preparing amorphous B5C:H thin films

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Abstract

The kinetics of hydrogen in preparing amorphous boron carbide (a-B5C:H) thin films was studied. The hydrogen concentration of a-B5C:H thin films formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from a single-source precursor (o-B10C2H12) is ∼35–50 at.% as determined by nuclear reaction analysis. The hydrogen concentration of the a-B5C:H thin films is an exponential function of the precursor flux during the deposition. After annealing, the hydrogen concentration in the a-B5C:H thin films decreases with the increasing annealing temperature. The kinetics of hydrogen removal during annealing is controlled predominantly by its dissociation from PECVD radicals in the a-B5C:H thin films. The activation energy of about 0.14 eV is related to hydrogen dissociation from B–H bonds, but higher activation energy (∼0.44 eV) is required to strip the hydrogen atoms from C–H bonds in the thin films.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Antony N. Caruso and Dr. Joseph Sandstrom at North Dakota State University for the preparation of thin films. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Art Haberl at the Ion Beam Laboratory, University of Albany, State University of New York, for helpful discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, 12180, USA

    Ruqiang Bao & Douglas B. Chrisey

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, 12180, USA

    Daniele J. Cherniak

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Bao, R., Chrisey, D.B. & Cherniak, D.J. Kinetics of hydrogen in preparing amorphous B5C:H thin films. Journal of Materials Research 26, 867–873 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2010.93

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