Fabrication of Amorphous Silicon–Carbon Hybrid Films Using Single-Source Precursors

The aim of this study was the preparation of different
amorphous
silicon–carbon hybrid thin-layer materials according to the
liquid phase deposition (LPD) process using single-source precursors.
In our study, 2-methyl-2-silyltrisilane (methylisotetrasilane; 2), 1,1,1-trimethyl-2,2-disilyltrisilane (trimethylsilylisotetrasilane; 3), 2-phenyl-2-silyltrisilane (phenylisotetrasilane; 4), and 1,1,2,2,4,4,5,5-octamethyl-3,3,6,6-tetrasilylcyclohexasilane
(cyclohexasilane; 5) were utilized as precursor materials
and compared with the parent compound 2,2-disilyltrisilane (neopentasilane; 1). Compounds 2–5 were successfully
oligomerized at λ = 365 nm with catalytic amounts of the neopentasilane
oligomer (NPO). These oligomeric mixtures (NPO and 6–9) were used for the preparation
of thin-layer materials. Optimum solution and spin coating conditions
were investigated, and amorphous silicon–carbon films were
obtained. All thin-layer materials were characterized via UV/vis spectroscopy,
light microscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, XPS, SEM, and SEM/EDX.
Our results show that the carbon content and especially the bandgap
can be easily tuned using these single-source precursors via LPD.