IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuA

Paper TF-TuA5
Thin Film Growth of Reactive Sputter Deposited Tungsten-Carbon Thin Films

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 3:20 pm, Room 123

Session: Growth and Properties of Thin Films
Presenter: J.J. Peterson, Advanced Vision Technologies
Authors: P.D. Rack, Rochester Institute of Technology
J.J. Peterson, Advanced Vision Technologies
J. Li, Advanced Vision Technologies
H.J. Rack, Clemson University
A.C. Geiculescu, Clemson University
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Tungsten-carbon thin films have been reactively sputter deposited in various Ar-CH gas mixtures and the growth kinetics of the reactive deposition process have been elucidated. X-ray diffraction data reveal that the films are amorphous as-deposited with partial crystallization of W2C and WC occurring following a 1100oC-1 minute rapid thermal anneal. Peak shape analysis of the W and C x-ray photoelectron peaks show binding energy shifts consistent with carbide formation for the annealed films. Carbon incorporation within the W-C films is attributed to flux of CH3 radicals impinging on the growth surface. Although the CH3 radicals have a significantly lower concentration (~0.1%) than the CH4 molecules contained within the plasma, the sticking coefficient of CH3 is significantly larger than that of CH4. In addition, the change in the incorporation rate of carbon in the W-C films at higher CH4 (and subsequently CH3) concentrations has been shown to be due to the changes in the growth surface; as the CH3 flux increases, the growth surface becomes carbon terminated decreases the incorporation of carbon because of the low CH3-C sticking coefficient. This presentation will demonstrate the experimental procedure used in growing the W-C thin films. Compositional analysis as a function of the CH4 concentration will be presented and the growth process will be shown to follow Langmuir-type growth.