ECR deposition of hydrogenated diamond-like amorphous carbon films using acetylene–oxygen plasmas

• Published in: Diamond and related materials Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 983 - 987
• Main Authors: Adamopoulos, G., Godet, C., Drévillon, B., Saito, Y., Batchelder, D.N., Grosman, A., Ortega, C.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.03.2003; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; ECR deposition; Exact sciences and technology; Hydrogenated amorphous carbon; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Raman spectroscopy; Spectroscopic ellipsometry; Vapor phase epitaxy; growth from vapor phase; Spectroscopic ellipsometry; Hydrogenated amorphous carbon; Raman spectroscopy; ECR deposition; Raman spectra; Oxygen; Films; Electron cyclotron-resonance; Experimental study; Carbon; Precursor; Acetylene; Gas mixtures; Growth from vapor; Diamond lattices; Nonmetals; Amorphous hydrogenated material; Preparation; Plasma deposition
• ISSN: 0925-9635; 1879-0062
• DOI: 10.1016/S0925-9635(02)00313-8

A series of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films have been grown from acetylene–oxygen mixtures using an Integrated Distributed Electron Cyclotron Resonance plasma reactor varying the relative precursor gases’ ratio. The films were characterised by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) and visible Raman spectroscopy. It has been found that the increase of the oxygen's partial pressure (for a given acetylene pressure of 1 mT) results in a decrease of the deposition rate as well as a monotonic increase of the oxygen fraction up to 20% for a gas ratio (O 2/C 2H 2)=1. Precisely, the increase of the oxygen's partial pressure is followed by a slight decrease of the optical band gap (namely the Tauc gap and the E 04 gap) and the films’ density. The parameters of the Raman spectra (intensity ratio of D and G bands, the position and the FWHM of the G band) move towards values characteristic of sp 2 bonding denoting that oxygen incorporation dominates the etching of the sp 2 phase.