High-rate, room-temperature synthesis of amorphous silicon carbide films from organo-silicon in high-density helicon wave plasma

In this study, amorphous silicon carbide (alpha-SiC) films were synthesized on 316L stainless steel by low pressure, high density helicon wave plasma (HWP), using tetramethylsilane (TMS) as the single-source precursor which is organometallic compound. The influence of the substrate bias voltage (Vs) on the surface morphology, structure, chemical composition, and mechanical properties of the a-SiC films is investigated. The increase of -V-s from 0 to 200 V causes the removal of organic moieties from the film and results in the formation condition for alpha-SiC. The maximum deposition rate of the coating is up to 250 nm/s, which is related to the high-density (> 10(19) m(-3)) plasma production of HWP [1]. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) results imply that the film is mainly composed of SiC. The films deposited at -V-s = 200 V appear to be high-hardness (up to 33.6 GPa) materials with very small surface roughness (similar to 0.5 nm). Considering the easy control of the bias voltage, our work provides a new method for achieving alpha-SiC films with high-yield at room temperature.