Effect of Sputtering Gas on Structural and Optical Properties of Sputtered SiC Thin Films

摘要

We report the structural and optical properties of nanostructured SiC thin films deposited on Si (100) and glass substrates by RF-magnetron sputtering. The effect of sputtering pressure on these properties has been studied systematically. The formations of SiC as well as carbon clusters were found in the measured Raman spectra. The average roughness of the SiC films increases with increase in the sputtering pressure. The optical band gap of the SiC films measured by UV-Visible spectrophotometer was found to decrease from 2.43 to 2.02 eV with increase in sputtering pressure from 10 to 20 mTorr. The UV-Visible spectroscopy results were in agreement with the data observed by Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy.