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Updated: May 24, 2026
Quantification of Hydrogen Concentrations in Surface and Interface Layers and Bulk Materials through Depth Profiling with Nuclear Reaction Analysis
Published on: March 29, 2016
Hydrogen dependent surface morphology study of plasma deposited SiN(x):H films for two gas systems SiH4/NH3 and
Siddheshwar Chopra1, R P Gupta, Souri Banerjee
1Department of Physics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan 333031, India.
Abstract:
Partially amorphous silicon nitride thin films were deposited using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique using the two gas systems: SiH4/NH3 and SiH4/N2. Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy was employed to derive the relative changes in the bonded hydrogen content with increasing flow rates of NH3 and N2. Surface morphology was monitored using atomic force microscopy. Root mean square surface roughness was found to be dependent on the NH3 and N2 flow rates, unlike silicon nitride films deposited by rf magnetron sputtering with variation in (N2/Ar) (Li et al. Thin Solid Films 334 (1998) 140). The discrepancy has been explained in the light of bonded hydrogen content in these films. The X-ray diffraction technique has also been used to observe the phases of the nitride films which showed the presence of silicon nitride grains oriented in (200), (400) and (221) directions in the predominantly amorphous as-deposited SiN(x):H films.
