Optical Emission Spectroscopy Analysis of Ar/N 2 Plasma in Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract The ternary silicon carbide‐nitride SiC x N y presents very promising properties: hardness, low chemical reactivity, and resistance to oxidation. This material can be deposited by various processes, but reactive magnetron sputtering is one of the most versatile. In this paper, we investigat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPlasma processes and polymers Vol. 6; no. S1
Main Authors Bousquet, Angélique, Spinelle, Laurent, Cellier, Joël, Tomasella, Eric
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.06.2009
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Summary:Abstract The ternary silicon carbide‐nitride SiC x N y presents very promising properties: hardness, low chemical reactivity, and resistance to oxidation. This material can be deposited by various processes, but reactive magnetron sputtering is one of the most versatile. In this paper, we investigated by optical emission spectroscopy an argon‐nitrogen plasma used with a silicon carbide target to deposit SiC x N y films. First, we observed the physical aspect of the discharge is modified not only with the injected atmosphere but also with target surface state, which highly influences the N 2 dissociation rate. Then, we followed two species coming from target sputtering: CN and Si. This study confirms the target nitriding up to a certain N 2 fraction. Finally, the OES information was related to the deposited film composition.
ISSN:1612-8850
1612-8869
DOI:10.1002/ppap.200931602