Structural and Optical Properties of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

A series of silicon carbonitride (SiCN) thin films, a relatively unstudied material, were fabricated by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR PECVD) located at McMaster University. For comparison, a set each of silicon nitride and silicon carbide samples were also fabricated. To study the effect of introducing rare earth ions into SiCN host matrix, we synthesised a series of SiCN co-doped with Ce and Tb. …