LASER DEPOSITION OF SILICON CARBIDE ALLOYS.

In this paper we describe the deposition of silicon-carbon alloys from mixtures of SiH//4 and C//3H//8 (as used in our plasma-deposited films) by focussing 514 nm radiation from an argon ion laser on to an oxidized silicon substrate at room temperature. As for the related work on laser deposited silicon, the substrate is held in a stainless steel reaction cell on a computer-controlled X-Y translation stage. The laser power, irradiation period and substrate position were controlled by menu-driven software to produce test patterns with a position accuracy of 0. 1 mu m. The reaction cell was filled via mass flow controllers to approximately 200 mB with the electronic grade gas mixtures (from 4 to 2 parts of silane with 1 part of propane) and sealed for each deposition pattern.