Some of the optical and mechanical properties of carbon incorporated amorphous silicon nitride films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering were examined. Silicon was sputtered by an Ar+H
2 gas mixture, nitrogen and carbon were introduced by the decomposition of NH
3 and CH
4 gases respectively. Various properties of the films such as composition, infrared absorption, visible and ultraviolet absorption, microvickers hardness and internal stress were measured. Optical band gap was increased from 1.5 to 5.0 eV in proportion to the N content and was barely affected by the addition of carbon. The maximum value of microvickers hardness obtained was about 4200 kg/mm
2 in Si
0.4N
0.6; H film, and, at the most, decreased by about 20% with the addition of carbon. Internal stress was compressive in all films and increased up to 7.3×10
9 dyne/cm
2 in SiN
x; H films in proportion to nitrogen content. By addition of carbon, stress decreased to less than one half of that of carbon free films.
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