Abstract：Non-stoichiometric hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx∶H) film was deposited by helico-wave plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (HWP-CVD) technique. The microstructure and bonding characteristics of both as-deposited and annealed thin films were studied. Raman scattering measurement shows that excess silicon exists in the form of amorphous silicon particles in the as-deposited sample. The microstructure of crystalline nano-particles silicon embedded in silicon nitride matrix in the post-annealed sample was formed. Comparing the results of both the Fourier transform infrared spectra and the optical absorption spectra of the samples deposited under different conditions, it is shown that the microstructure of the thin film depended on the gas flow ratio and annealing process. The sample with lower excess silicon shows a lower density of defect state at the silicon nanocrystal/SiNx interface due to a higher binding hydrogen content. The annealing process induces the decrease in Si—H and N—H binding densities. Because of the formation of silicon nanocrystals, the annealed samples exhibit a higher structure disorder degree.
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