https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201713900002
Synthesis, Characterization and Optical Constants of Silicon Oxycarbide
1 Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano, via Ponzio 34/5, 20133 Milano Italy
2 Department of Telecommunications Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro 76062, Pakistan
3 Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro 76062, Pakistan
4 Polifab, Politecnico di Milano, via Giuseppe Colombo 81, 20133 Milano Italy
* Corresponding author: faisalahmed.memon@polimi.it
Published online: 23 March 2017
High refractive index glasses are preferred in integrated photonics applications to realize higher integration scale of passive devices. With a refractive index that can be tuned between SiO2 (1.45) and a-SiC (3.2), silicon oxycarbide SiOC offers this flexibility. In the present work, silicon oxycarbide thin films from 0.1 – 2.0 μm thickness are synthesized by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering a silicon carbide SiC target in a controlled argon and oxygen environment. The refractive index n and material extinction coefficient k of the silicon oxycarbide films are acquired with variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry over the UV-Vis-NIR wavelength range. Keeping argon and oxygen gases in the constant ratio, the refractive index n is found in the range from 1.41 to 1.93 at 600 nm which is almost linearly dependent on RF power of sputtering. The material extinction coefficient k has been estimated to be less than 10-4 for the deposited silicon oxycarbide films in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions. Morphological and structural characterizations with SEM and XRD confirms the amorphous phase of the SiOC films.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.