Proton NMR Studies of Amorphous Plasma-Deposited Films

ABSTRACTProton magnetic resonance data are presented for the hydrogen alloys of plasma-deposited amorphous boron, silicon, carbon, silicon carbide, and silicon nitride. Linewidth and lineshape analysis leads to the conclusion that hydrogen nuclei are clustered in a-Si/C:H, a-C:H, and a-Si/NiH. The a-Si/C:H and a-C:H data show that hydrogen exists in two phases. Modeling of linewidths in a-Si/C:H indicates that the two phases are heavily hydrogenated carbon clusters imbedded in a weakly hydrogenated silicon lattice. Evidence is also presented for the presence of motionally narrowed hydrogen spectra in a-B:H, a-Si/N:H and a-C:H. “B NMR spectra in a-B:H show no evidence of motional narrowing. It is suggested that the hydrogen nuclei giving rise to the motionally narrowed spectra are associated with disorder modes.