Low temperature deposition of ultrathin molybdenum carbide films and microstructural characterisation

Abstract

Nanostructured thin Mo₂C (30 nm) films were prepared on p-Si(100) substrate at room temperature using fast atom beam source sputtering (FABS) technique. The films were characterised using four point probe (FPP), SEM, EDAX, RBS, AFM and XRD measurements. The as deposited Mo₂C films were found to have nanocrystalline structure. Single phase hcp β-Mo₂C phase formation was observed in low carbon contents films. XRD analysis indicates that increased carbon contents in film leads to formation of multiphase molybdenum carbide along with unreacted constituent metals. The surface roughness and the average grain size measured by AFM were of the order of ∼4 and about 2–4 nm respectively.