Optical and structural characterization of laser-synthesized ultrafine Si-C-N powders

Abstract

Nanometric Si-C-N powders were obtained by CO2-laser- induced synthesis, starting from two different gas mixtures: SiH4-NH3-C2H4 or SiH4-NH3-C2H2. The variation in the initial gas mixture composition influences the local bonding and crystallinity of the powders. Infrared reflection spectroscopy and X- ray diffraction analysis have been used to investigate the final powder composition. The results show that it is possible to produce the ternary Si-C-N phase with a variable relative arrangement of silicon, nitrogen and carbon atoms on the sites of the amorphous network.