Effect of process parameters on the mechanical properties of carbon nitride thin films synthesized by plasma assisted pulsed laser deposition

We present an investigation of the effect of the process parameters, namely deposition pressure and laser intensity, on the growth and mechanical properties of carbon nitride (CNx) thin films synthesized by plasma assisted pulsed laser deposition. Deposition at high remote plasma pressure (200 mTorr) enhances both growth rate and nitrogen incorporation (up to 40 at. %), but nano-indentation measurements indicate that these films are very soft and have poor mechanical properties. At low remote plasma pressure (0.5 mTorr), the nitrogen content varies from 24 to 16 at. % with increasing laser intensity as the films become much harder and more elastic, with hardness and Young's modulus values reaching 24 GPa and 230 GPa, respectively. These effects are explained in terms of a thermalization of the laser plasma at 200 mTorr and indicate that plasma activation of nitrogen does not provide any particular benefit to the film properties when deposition is performed at high pressure. However, at low pressure, the benefit of plasma activation is evidenced through enhanced nitrogen incorporation in the films while preserving the highly energetic species in the ablation plume. Such conditions lead to the synthesis, at room temperature, of hard and elastic films having properties close to those of fullerene-like CNx.