The changing of silicon suboxide film thickness as a result of high temperature annealing

The a-SiO x :H thin films were deposited by the gas-jet electron beam plasma chemical vapor deposition method with different stoichiometry (x=0.15-1.0) for different SiH 4 flow rates. The concentration of hydrogen in the films increases with the growth rate in ranges from 1.5 to 4.8 at.%. Further annealing leads to the effusion of hydrogen from the structure of the material and the compression of the structure, which leads to a reduction in the thickness for all films. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that the as-deposited films crystallized to form nc-Si about 4-8 nm in size after annealing at 1000°C.