Aachen PK 2003 – scientific programme

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P: Plasmaphysik

P 4: Poster I

P 4.12: Poster

Monday, March 17, 2003, 17:45–19:15, Foyer

Deposition of a-C:H-Films with an Expanding Surface Wave Plasma — •O. Stefanovic, J. Berndt, and J. Winter — Institut for Experimental Physics II, Ruhr-University Bochum, D-44780 Bochum

In the last few years hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a-C:H-films) have found an increasing number of industrial and technical applications. They are widely used as protective coatings on optical devices and as wear resistant coatings. Depending on the deposition conditions (as gas composition and ion energy) the properties of a-C:H-films can vary from soft polymer-like to hard diamond-like carbon (DLC). In the present paper the expanding plasma of a surface wave sustained microwave discharge in combination with an additional pulsed H-atom source is used for the investigation of deposition processes in methane/argon gas mixtures. The deposited a-C:H-films are characterized by means of ex-situ-ellipsomety and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) with respect to growth rate, refraction index and surface morphology. First investigations performed with an external source of atomic hydrogen show that the sputtering yield of the amorphous carbon films is drastically enhanced due to the combined action of argon ions and H- atoms. Consequently the growth rate of these films in methane /argon discharges is strongly reduced in the presence of an additional flux of atomic hydrogen. On the other hand AFM measurements show, that the surface roughness tends to become smaller due to the action of the atomic hydrogen.
This work is supported by the DFG within SFB 1944.