The analysis of carbon bonding environment in HWCVD deposited a-SiC:H films by XPS and Raman spectroscopy

Incorporation of carbon in a-Si:H network distorts the structural and enhances the optical band gap of HWCVD deposited a-SiC:H thin films. Besides C–C and CC bonds, C–H and Si–C bonds are mainly responsible for increasing the band gap from 2.4 to 3.5 eV. The presence of Si, O and defect clusters of sp2 carbon in the a-SiC:H matrix could indeed shift the diamond C(1s) peak position and broaden the FWHM of C(1s) peak. The C(1s) diamond peak is observed at 285.0 eV. In this work, we try to analyze the a-SiC:H network with the variation of C2H2 flow rate and the change in orbital behavior of sp2 and sp3 carbon in the presence of silicon and oxygen atom.