The Influence of Vacuum Annealing Temperature on the Fundamental Absorption Edge and Structural Relaxation of a-SiC:H Films.

Vasin, A. V.; Rusavsky, A. V.; Lysenko, V. S.; Nazarov, A. N.; Kushnirenko, V. I.; Starik, S. P.; Stepanov, V. G.

The effect of vacuum annealing temperature on the characteristics of the fundamental absorption edge and short-range order reconstruction in amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) films obtained by magnetron sputtering of silicon in an Ar/CH4 mixture is experimentally investigated. It is shown that redistribution of chemically bound hydrogen occurs at low annealing temperatures (450°C). This redistribution is determined by (i) breakage of silicon–hydrogen bonds and (ii) trapping of atomic hydrogen by carbon dangling bonds. These processes lead to an enhancement of visible photoluminescence. Breakage of carbon–hydrogen bonds and clusterization of amorphous carbon occur at higher annealing temperatures. The proposition that the main nonradiative recombination centers in a-SiC:H films are electronic states related to the carbon dangling bonds is justified. © 2005 Pleiades Publishing, Inc.

SEMICONDUCTORS; SILICON carbide; LUMINESCENCE; ELECTRONICS; HYDROGEN bonding; PHOTOLUMINESCENCE

Semiconductors, 2005, Vol 39, Issue 5, p572

1063-7826

Academic Journal

10.1134/1.1923567