Photo- and electro-luminescence from hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide films prepared by using organic carbon source^*

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) films were grown by using an organic source, xylene (C₈H₁₀), instead of methane (CH₄) in a conventional plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. The optical band gap of these samples was increased gradually by changing the gas ratio of C₈H₁₀ to SiH₄. The film with high optical band gap was soft and polymer-like and intense photoluminescence were obtained. Room temperature electro-luminescence was also achieved with peak energy at 2.05 eV (600 nm) for the a-SiC:H film with optical band gap of 3.2 eV.