Growth of Carbon-Nitrogen Films with a Broad Beam RF Ion Source

Abstract

AbstractWith the lack of suitable native oxides, gallium nitride based semiconductor devices will need other materials for dielectric, insulating and passivating layers in a variety of device applications. A carbon-nitrogen film is a possible candidate for this application. Insulating films can be made of this material with a variety of techniques. Ion beam techniques are a well accepted way to demonstrate the existence of a material with certain properties and a way to establish the range of those properties in the material. Ion beam assisted deposition has been used in this work to fabricate materials with various stoichiometries in order to determine the range of properties available for this material.Thin films containing predominantly carbon and nitrogen have been grown using a mixture of methane and nitrogen from a 20 cm rf ion source. The stoichiometry of the films has been measured with Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS), and Elastic Recoil Spectroscopy (ERS). The effect of nitrogen-to-methane ratio, ion energy, and RF power on the film composition, properties, and growth rate is reported together with an analysis of the anticipated growth mechanics.