LAUSR

Dielectric films of hydrogenated silicon oxycarbonitride SiCxNyOz:H were prepared by plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition using gas mixtures of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) or 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisilazane (TMDS) with oxygen and nitrogen in the temperature range of 373–973 K. The effect of the conditions of synthesis on the chemical and phase composition of the films was studied, in the amorphous part of which nanocrystals belonging to the phases of the Si–C–N system α-Si3N4, α-Si3–xCxN4, and graphite were distributed. To measure the hardness and Young’s modulus, the nanoindentation method was used. The influence that the synthesis temperature and nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio in the initial gas mixtures HMDS + O2 + xN2 and TMDS + O2 + xN2 have on the hardness and Young’s modulus of the resulting SiCxNyOz:H films was investigated. The maximum obtained values of these parameters were 20.4 and 201.5 GPa, respectively.