Effects of radio frequency power on the chemical bonding, optical and mechanical properties for radio frequency reactive sputtered germanium carbide films

Germanium carbide (Ge1−xCx) films have been prepared by radio frequency (RF) reactive sputtering of a pure Ge(111) target in a CH4/Ar mixture discharge, and their composition, chemical bonding, optical and mechanical properties have been investigated as a function of RF power. The relationship between the chemical bonding and the optical and mechanical properties of the Ge1−xCx films has been explored. The results show that the refractive index of Ge1−xCx films increases from 1.9 to 3.2 and the optical gap decreases from 1.9 to 1.0 eV as RF power increases from 80 to 250 W, which is due to an increase in the germanium content with increasing RF power. Also, it is found that the hardness of Ge1−xCx films increases with increasing RF power, which can be attributed to an increase in the fraction of sp3 Ge–C bonds at the expense of the sp2 C–C bonds in the Ge1−xCx films.