Proceedings of the Twelfth European Conference on Chemical Vapour Deposition

J. Phys. IV France 09 (1999) Pr8-419-Pr8-424
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:1999852

Synthesis and characterization of CN thin films by IR laser deposition in a flow reactor

A. Crunteanu¹, R. Alexandrescu¹, S. Cojocaru¹, M. Charbonnier², M. Romand² and F. Vasiliu<sup>3

1</sup>  National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Lasers Department, P.O. Box MG-36, 76900 Bucharest, Romania
²  Laboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie des Surfaces, Université Claude Bernard - Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France
³  National Institute for Material Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, 76900 Bucharest, Romania

Abstract
Carbon nitride (CN_x) thin films were produced by CO₂ laser (λ=10.6 µm) irradiation of mixtures containing C₂H₂/N₂O/NH₃, in a flow reactor, on Si substrates. The experimental parameters (partial concentrations of the reactants, gas flows, total pressure) were chosen in order to maximize the nitrogen incorporation in films. Chemical composition and bonding structure of the deposited films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Thus, it was found that nitrogen is chemically bonded to C sp² or sp³ configurations, the N/C ratio (considering only the N atoms bonded to carbon) being ~20%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows a specific growth morphology, while the transmission electron diffraction (TED) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the CN_x films were crystalline, with diffraction lines that matches rather well with those of the predicted β-C₃N₄ form.

© EDP Sciences 1999