Influence of annealing and sputtering ambience on the photoluminescence of silicon nitride thin films

• Published in: Guang pu xue yu guang pu fen xi Vol. 28; no. 11; p. 2494
• Main Authors: Jia, Xiao-Yun, Xu, Zheng, Zhao, Su-Ling, Zhang, Fu-Jun, Zhao, De-Wei, Tang, Yu, Li, Yuan, Zhou, Chun-Lan, Wang, Wen-Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: China 01.11.2008
• ISSN: 1000-0593
• DOI: 10.3964/j.issn.1000-0593(2008)11-2494-04

The radio frequency (r. f.) magnetron sputtering was used for preparing silicon-rich silicon nitride films deposited on polished Si substrates at 80 degrees C substrate temperature. The high-purity Ar was used as a sputtering gas and the high-purity N2 as a reactive gas. The silicon nitride films with different Si-rich degrees were obtained by changing the flow ratio of Ar/N2, and subsequently the samples were annealed at a high temperature in pure N2 ambience. The influence of annealing on the properties of films was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL). The appearance of Si-N bonds can be confirmed by the XPS, from which the ratio of Si/N can be rough estimated. Therefore, the XPS reveals that the sample before annealing has a high content of Si which is the premise to come into being nanometer Si. However, the PL peak of the films before annealing in the visible light region was not observed obviously. The XRD results indicate that the p