Merazga et al. 54 Effect of Thermal Annealing on the Optical and Structural Properties of the a-SiC Thin Films Deposited by DC Magnetron Sputtering NanoWorld Journal Research Article Open Access https://doi.org/10.17756/nwj.2017-047 Saloua Merazga 1* , A. Kefous 1 , A. Brighet 2 and M. Kechouane 2 1 CRTSE, Division Couches Minces Surfaces et Interfaces, 02 Bd Frantz Fanon, BP 140 Alger 7-merveilles, Alger, Algeria 2 Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, Faculté de Physique, BP 32 El Alia, 16111, Alger, Algeria * Correspondence to: Saloua Merazga, PhD CRTSE, Division Couches Minces Surfaces et Interfaces, 02 Bd Frantz Fanon, BP 140 Alger 7-merveilles, Alger, Algeria E-mail: merazgas@yahoo.fr Received: January 19, 2017 Accepted: September 18, 2017 Published: September 21, 2017 Citation: Merazga S, Kefous A, Brighet A, Kechouane M. 2017. Efect of Termal Annealing on the Optical and Structural Properties of the a-SiC Tin Films Deposited by DC Magnetron Sputtering. NanoWorld J 3(3): 54-58. Copyright: © 2017 Merazga et al. Tis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY) (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits commercial use, including reproduction, adaptation, and distribution of the article provided the original author and source are credited. Published by United Scientifc Group Abstract Hydrogenated Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) thin flms were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering technique using 6H-SiC polycrystalline target in a mixture of H 2 and Ar gas. Tey were thermally annealed at various temperatures up to 800 °C. Te a-SiC:H flms were deposited at diferent hydrogen partial pressure rates varying from 0 to 9 sccm on p-type Si(100) and Corning glass 9075 substrates. Te annealing temperatures were varied and the samples were characterized by Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy and Ellipsometry spectroscopy. Te previous results of infrared and Raman spectroscopy reveal structural modifcations in the material structure of the layers through a reduction of the thickness and optical gap and the variation of the refractive index during the annealing. Keywords Amorphous SiC, Annealing, Sputtering, DC magnetron, Gap Introduction Annealing of hydrogenated silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) thin flms has attracted great interest in optoelectronics and photovoltaic domain [1] for the flms prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD), due to their chemical stability and interesting optical and electronic properties. Tis type of material has a major advantage, which consists of its possibility to modify its properties by either varying the preparation conditions or the flm composition [2, 3]. Te annealing efect on a-Si x C 1−x :H thin flms have been reported by several authors [2-5]. A.L. Baia Neto et al. reported the decrease of Si-H bonds at low annealing temperatures, whereas the C-H bonds are only afected at temperatures higher than 500 °C. On near stoichiometric a-SiC:H flms deposited using a RF glow discharge system. M. Kuenle et al. investigated that the deposited flms became amorphous directly after deposition and nanocrystalline after annealing at 1300 °C. Tereabout, D. H. Yoon founded that an annealing process results in structural rearrangement and evacuation of hydrogen atoms from CH n and SiH n bonds. However, F. Demichelis and G. Kaniadakis reported that the optical parameters of a-SiC:H flms deposited by sputtering system strongly depend on the preparation conditions and appear to be sensitive functions of the network disorder [6]. However, the infuence of preparation conditions on the thermal stability of amorphous SiC:H flms remain unclear up to now. All these investigations are carried out in order to show the great importance of the thermal treatment study of the a-SiC:H. Many phenomena can occur