High-temperature thermal stability research on SiC thin films by magnetron sputtering

SiC thin films were grown on Si substrates by magnetron sputtering. The structural and component changes of the films, pre and post high temperature annealing at different temperature and atmosphere conditions, were studied. The results show that the films are characterized by the amorphous microstructure and mainly composed of Si-C bondings, C-C bondings as well as a small mount of oxide impurity consorted with Si; the content of the C-C bondings decreased after annealing in vacuum, meanwhile the Si-C bondings content increased, annealing in vacuum is beneficial to the formation of SiC; after annealing at 800°C in air, a thin dense layer of SiO₂ formed on the surface, which prevented the oxygen from contacting with the film and effectively protected the inner SiC from oxidizing. SiC films have good thermal stability at 800°C in air.