Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Amorphous Silicon Carbide Thin Films Using the Femtosecond Pump-Probe Technique

Abstract

Nanoscale amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) thin films are widely used in engineering applications. It is important to obtain accurate information about their material properties because they often differ from those of the bulk state depending on the fabrication technique and process parameters. In this study, the thermal and mechanical properties of a-SiC thin films were evaluated using the femtosecond pump-probe technique, which provides high spatial and temporal resolutions sufficient to measure films that have a thickness of less than 300 nm. a-SiC films were grown using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, and the surface characteristics were analyzed using ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray reflectometry. The results show that the out-of-the-plane thermal conductivity of the films is lower than that of bulk crystalline SiC by two orders of magnitude, but the lower limit is dictated by the minimum thermal conductivity. In addition, a decrease in the mass density resulted in a reduced Young’s modulus by 13.6–78.4% compared to the literature values, implying low Si-C bond density in the microstructures. The scale effect on both thermal conductivity and Young’s modulus was not significant.

Keywords

• amorphous silicon carbide
• thin film
• thermal conductivity
• Young’s modulus
• femtosecond laser ultrasonics