Investigation of Physicochemical Properties of Mo Carbide Utilizing Electron Spectroscopy

Abstract

Molybdenum carbide (MoCx) thin films (TFs) were deposited by reactive radio frequency (rf) magnetron co-sputtering in high vacuum chamber. We compared the properties of MoCx thin films as the rf power changed on C target. The result of alpha step measurement showed that the thickness of the MoCx TFs varied from163.3 to 194.86 nm as C power was increased from 160 to 200 W. The crystallinity of MoCx such as b-Mo2C, Mo2C, and diamond like carbon (DLC) structures were observed by XRD. The oxidation states of Mo and C were determined using high resolution XPS spectra of Mo 3d and C 1s were deconvoluted. Molybdenum was consisted of Mo, Mo4+, and Mo6+ species. And C was deconvoluted to C-Mo, C, C-O, and C=O species.