Remote Hydrogen Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition from (Dimethylsilyl)(trimethylsilyl)methane. 1. Kinetics of the Process; Chemical and Morphological Structure of Deposited Silicon−Carbon Films

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon−carbon (a-Si:C:H) films have been produced by the remote hydrogen plasma chemical vapor deposition (RHP-CVD) using (dimethylsilyl)(trimethylsilyl)methane as a single-source compound. The effect of the substrate temperature on the kinetics of the RHP-CVD process, structure, composition, and surface morphology of the resulting film has been investigated. The Arrhenius plots of substrate temperature dependencies of the mass- and thickness-based film growth rate imply that the investigated RHP-CVD is an adsorption-controlled process. The increase of the substrate temperature from 30 to 400 °C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of a Si-carbidic network structure. The microscopic examination revealed that the films are defect-free materials of excellent morphological homogeneity and good conformality of coverage.