Investigations on silicon/amorphous-carbon and silicon/nanocrystalline palladium/ amorphous-carbon interfaces

Our previous work revealed that significant enhancement in sp3-carbon content of amorphous carbon films could be achieved when grown on nanocrystalline palladium interlayer as compared to those grown on bare silicon substrates. To find out why, the nature of interface formed in both the cases has been investigated using Electron Probe Micro Analysis (EPMA) technique. It has been found that a reactive interface in the form of silicon carbide and/silicon oxy-carbide is formed at the interface of silicon/amorphous-carbon films, while palladium remains primarily in its native form at the interface of nanocrystalline palladium/amorphous-carbon films. However, there can be traces of dissolved oxygen within the metallic layer as well. The study has been corroborated further from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies.