Effect of Annealing Temperatures on Structures and Optical Properties of RF Magnetron Sputtering SiC Films

First SiC films were prepared on Si(100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature, and then the SiC films were annealed at 600, 800 and 1 000 ℃ for 120 min in argon atmosphere. The structure of SiC films was studied with XRD and FTIR and the PL spectra of SiC films were measured by fluorescence spectrophotometer. The results show that the SiC films prepared at room temperature were amorphous and they became crystalline when being annealed at 600 ℃. The crystallinity of SiC films was improved and there was β-SiC formed with the increase of annealing temperature. There were two photoluminescence peaks at 384 and 408 nm, and the intensity of these two peaks increased with the increase of annealing temperature. The PL peak at 384 nm was due to the SiC particles while the PL peak at 408 nm was related to the carbon clusters.