The effect of nitrogen incorporation on surface properties of silicon oxynitride films

Abstract

In order to investigate the surface heterogeneity of silicon oxynitride films, we observed the nanoscale variation of the surface potential by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM), the molecular bonding characteristics by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and the wetting behavior by contact angle measurement. Nitrogen incorporation into silicon oxynitride films influenced the decrease in the surface potential and the polar component of the surface free energy. We present the first correlation between the nanoscale measurement of the surface potential and the macroscopic measurement of the surface free energy in silicon oxynitride films grown by a standard plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim