Mechanical and tribological properties of thin remote microwave plasma CVD a-Si:N:C films from a single-source precursor

Silicon carbonitride (a-Si:N:C) films produced by remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RP-CVD) were investigated. Tetramethyldisilazane as a single-source precursor and (H-2+N-2) upstream gas mixture for plasma generation were used. The influence of the upstream gas composition on the structure, density, mechanical and tribological properties of the films deposited on p-type Si (001) wafers (both heated-T-s=300degreesC and unheated-T-s=30degreesC) are reported. The H-2 RP-CVD process was found to result in the formation of outstanding low friction (muapproximate to0.04) and high hardness (H=27-31 GPa) a-Si:N:C films exhibiting promisingly high H/E values.