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Trimethylboron as single-source precursor for boron-carbon thin film synthesis by plasma chemical vapor deposition

Imam, Mewlude ; Höglund, Carina LU ; Jensen, Jens ; Schmidt, Susann ; Ivanov, Ivan G. ; Hall-Wilton, Richard LU ; Birch, Jens and Pedersen, Henrik (2016) In Journal of Physical Chemistry C 120(38). p.21990-21997
Abstract

Boron-carbon (BxC) thin films are potential neutron converting layers for 10B-based neutron detectors. However, as common material choices for such detectors do not tolerate temperatures above 500 °C, a low temperature deposition route is required. Here, we study trimethylboron B(CH3)3 (TMB) as a single-source precursor for the deposition of BxC thin films by plasma CVD using Ar plasma. The effect of plasma power, TMB/Ar flow ratio and total pressure, on the film composition, morphology, chemical bonding, and microstructures are investigated. Dense and boron-rich films (B/C = 1.9) are achieved at high TMB flow under a low total pressure and high plasma power, which rendered an... (More)

Boron-carbon (BxC) thin films are potential neutron converting layers for 10B-based neutron detectors. However, as common material choices for such detectors do not tolerate temperatures above 500 °C, a low temperature deposition route is required. Here, we study trimethylboron B(CH3)3 (TMB) as a single-source precursor for the deposition of BxC thin films by plasma CVD using Ar plasma. The effect of plasma power, TMB/Ar flow ratio and total pressure, on the film composition, morphology, chemical bonding, and microstructures are investigated. Dense and boron-rich films (B/C = 1.9) are achieved at high TMB flow under a low total pressure and high plasma power, which rendered an approximate substrate temperature of ∼300 °C. Films mainly contain B-C bonds with the presence of B-O and C-C, which is attributed to be the origin of formed amorphous carbon in the films. The high H content (15 ± 5 at. %) is almost independent of deposition parameters and contributed to lower the film density (2.16 g/cm3). The plasma compositional analysis shows that the TMB molecule decomposes to mainly atomic H, C2, BH, and CH. A plasma chemical model for the decomposition of TMB with BH and CH as the plausible film depositing species in the plasma is proposed.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Physical Chemistry C
volume
120
issue
38
pages
8 pages
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:84989862617
ISSN
1932-7447
DOI
10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06529
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c5be7092-84e2-48ec-8259-ebc1db175734
date added to LUP
2016-10-31 08:48:22
date last changed
2022-04-09 00:13:43
@article{c5be7092-84e2-48ec-8259-ebc1db175734,
  abstract     = {{<p>Boron-carbon (B<sub>x</sub>C) thin films are potential neutron converting layers for <sup>10</sup>B-based neutron detectors. However, as common material choices for such detectors do not tolerate temperatures above 500 °C, a low temperature deposition route is required. Here, we study trimethylboron B(CH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub> (TMB) as a single-source precursor for the deposition of B<sub>x</sub>C thin films by plasma CVD using Ar plasma. The effect of plasma power, TMB/Ar flow ratio and total pressure, on the film composition, morphology, chemical bonding, and microstructures are investigated. Dense and boron-rich films (B/C = 1.9) are achieved at high TMB flow under a low total pressure and high plasma power, which rendered an approximate substrate temperature of ∼300 °C. Films mainly contain B-C bonds with the presence of B-O and C-C, which is attributed to be the origin of formed amorphous carbon in the films. The high H content (15 ± 5 at. %) is almost independent of deposition parameters and contributed to lower the film density (2.16 g/cm<sup>3</sup>). The plasma compositional analysis shows that the TMB molecule decomposes to mainly atomic H, C<sub>2</sub>, BH, and CH. A plasma chemical model for the decomposition of TMB with BH and CH as the plausible film depositing species in the plasma is proposed.</p>}},
  author       = {{Imam, Mewlude and Höglund, Carina and Jensen, Jens and Schmidt, Susann and Ivanov, Ivan G. and Hall-Wilton, Richard and Birch, Jens and Pedersen, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1932-7447}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  number       = {{38}},
  pages        = {{21990--21997}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{Journal of Physical Chemistry C}},
  title        = {{Trimethylboron as single-source precursor for boron-carbon thin film synthesis by plasma chemical vapor deposition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06529}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06529}},
  volume       = {{120}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}