Conformal chemical vapor deposition of boron-rich boron carbide thin films from triethylboron

We report conformal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of boron carbide (BxC) thin films on silicon substrates with 8:1 aspect-ratio morphologies, using triethylboron [B(C2H5)3] as a single source CVD precursor. Step coverage (SC) calculated from the cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy measurements shows that films deposited at ≤450 °C were highly conformal (SC = 1). We attribute this to the low reaction probability at low substrate temperatures enabling more gas phase diffusion into the features. The chemical state of the material, determined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, shows as a carbide with B–B, B–C, C–B, and C–C chemical bonds. Quantitative analysis by time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis reveals that films deposited at 450 °C are boron-rich with around 82.5 at. % B, 15.6 at. % C, 1.3 at. % O, and 0.6 at. % H, i.e., about B5C. The film density as measured by x-ray reflectometry varies from 1.9 to 2.28 g/cm3 depending on deposition temperature.