Silicon based materials, including silicon oxides and silicon oxynitrides, have found
use in a number of areas in photonics including waveguides, antireflection and highly
reflective coatings for laser facets, and detectors. For effective use of these materials
in photonics it is necessary to characterize their optical properties as a function of
their composition and structure. Since these characteristics are often dependent on
the method used to deposit the films it is necessary to also determine the effect of
deposition type and conditions on the film's properties.
Recently, silicon based materials have been seen to display luminescence due to
quantum confinement effects when nanocrystals are formed. This opens up the possibility
of a silicon based emitter, something that has not had previous success due
to the indirect bandgap of bulk silicon. The development of a silicon based emitter
in turn would open up the possibility for monolithically integrated photonic circuits
that could take advantage of CMOS processing technology.
This thesis presents the results of research into the characterization of amorphous
silicon and silicon oxide thin films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Optical properties of the films have been determined
through the use of ellipsometry and correlated with the results from compositional
analysis, done using Rutherford backscattering and elastic recoil detection,
and bonding structure analysis, done using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
Nanocrystals were formed within the films by subjecting them to post-deposition thermal
annealing, which induces a phase separation in silicon rich silicon oxide films. The
effects of different annealing conditions on composition, structure and optical properties
have also been analyzed. Finally, photoluminescence experiments were conducted
on the films and correlated with the results from other characterization techniques. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/22356 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Roschuk, Tyler |
| Contributors | Mascher, P., Engineering Physics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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