Silicon nitride nanostructures prepared by reactive sputtering using closed-field unbalanced dual magnetrons

摘要

In this work, silicon nitride nanostructures were prepared by a reactive sputtering technique employing, a novel design of closed-field unbalanced dual magnetron system. The optical properties of the prepared nanostructures were studied by their absorption and transmission spectra in the range of 200-800nm. As well, the structural properties of these structures were studied to determine the optimum geometry of the employed closed-field unbalanced dual magnetron configuration. The produced Si3N4 nanostructures showed high absorption in the ultraviolet wavelength region (<200nm) in addition to an absorption band centered at 389nm. The energy gap of the prepared samples was found to be 5.2 eV of allowed and direct type. Structural results showed that the prepared samples were amorphous with average particle size of 20-30nm, average particle diameter of 99.22nm and average roughness of 0.777nm. In this technique, low cost, high purity and homogeneous surfaces can be prepared by the effective control of the operation parameters, especially the geometry of closed-field unbalanced dual magnetron configuration.