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Optical Emission Spectroscopy Analysis of Ar/N 2 Plasma in Reactive Magnetron Sputtering
Author(s) -
Bousquet Angélique,
Spinelle Laurent,
Cellier Joël,
Tomasella Eric
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.200931602
Subject(s) - sputtering , materials science , argon , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , sputter deposition , silicon carbide , analytical chemistry (journal) , nitride , silicon , carbide , dissociation (chemistry) , ternary operation , cavity magnetron , nitriding , silicon nitride , thin film , metallurgy , chemical engineering , chemistry , nanotechnology , layer (electronics) , organic chemistry , chromatography , computer science , engineering , programming language
The ternary silicon carbide‐nitride SiC x N y presents very promising properties: hardness, low chemical reactivity, and resistance to oxidation. This material can be deposited by various processes, but reactive magnetron sputtering is one of the most versatile. In this paper, we investigated by optical emission spectroscopy an argon‐nitrogen plasma used with a silicon carbide target to deposit SiC x N y films. First, we observed the physical aspect of the discharge is modified not only with the injected atmosphere but also with target surface state, which highly influences the N 2 dissociation rate. Then, we followed two species coming from target sputtering: CN and Si. This study confirms the target nitriding up to a certain N 2 fraction. Finally, the OES information was related to the deposited film composition.