Magnetron Sputtering in Silicon Rich Film Deposition

Abstract

<p>The technique of magnetron sputtering is considered for the deposition of silicon rich films. Attention was paid to the possibility to produce light emitting silicon rich films by three different methods, such as reactive magnetron sputtering, co-sputtering from silicon/silicon dioxide targets and a stacked film approach. It was found that photoluminescence of the films deposited in presence of hydrogen was much grater then that for other samples.</p> <p>A model of reactive sputter deposition was also developed and tested in this work. Results achieved in numerical simulation are compared with experimental data and show a good correlation.</p> <p>An experimental unit for magnetron sputtering was designed and built based on a sphere-shaped vacuum chamber equipped with a commercially available magnetron sputter gun, RF generator as power supply unit, vacuum controllers, mass flow controllers, in-situ thickness monitor, temperature controller and other supplemental equipment.</p> <p>Characterization of deposited film was made usmg Profile Measurement, ellipsometry, Rutherford Back Scattering measurements, X-Ray Diffraction measurements and photoluminescence measurements.</p> <p>The achieved results show the principal possibility of getting microcrystalline silicon films and light emitting silicon nanocrystals embedded into silicon dioxide matrix by the sputter deposition technique.</p>