This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a new technique for the growth of carbon nitride thin films. The technique is based on the reaction of high velocity (3 to 8 km/s) carbon/nitrogen atom beams with surfaces. Carbon nitride is predicted to be a material with tribological and electronic applications and hence significant effort has been devoted to its synthesis. These efforts have met with limited success. A recent advance is the synthesis using a dual atomic beam source of a pure C2N phase having diamond-like carbon properties. This research will explore single atomic beam synthesis at energies between 1 and 10 eV. This energy range can lead to higher reactivity without amorphorization and can be commercially applied. In Phase I, an atomic beam containing carbon and nitrogen atoms will be generated, characterized and used to deposit thin films on silicon substrates. The thin films will be analyzed for composition and bonding. The deposition of films with extended solid bonding and high nitrogen content will verify the growth technique. The development of a technique for carbon nitride thin film growth can have tribological and possibly electronic applications. The developed atom technique can also be used for the growth of other technologically important nitride materials.
