Auger electron spectroscopy study of SiC thin films deposited on silicon

SiC thin films were deposited on silicon substrates using an elemental silicon target, reactively sputtered in a DC sputtering system in which the substrate temperature was kept at 900°C during deposition. Auger electron spectroscopy was utilized for the study of composition and chemical status of the deposited films. The line shape of C KVV Auger peak shows a similarity with previously reported results of c-SiC. An Auger depth profile through the film was also obtained using argon sputtering to study the compositional distribution. In addition, the IRRS of our films feature a rather strong peak around 800 cm −1 . All these results indicate that SiC has been formed in the films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering.