IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuA

Paper SE-TuA10
Deposition of Diamondlike Carbon by Magnetic Pole Enhanced Inductively Coupled Plasma

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:00 pm, Room 132

Session: Hard and Superhard Coatings
Presenter: F. Rossi, Joint Research Center, Italy
Authors: T. Meziani, Joint Research Center, Italy
P. Colpo, Joint Research Center, Italy
G. Ceccone, Joint Research Center, Italy
P. Leray, Joint Research Center, Italy
P.N. Gibson, Joint Research Center, Italy
D. Summa, Joint Research Center, Italy
F. Rossi, Joint Research Center, Italy
P. Ranson, GREMI, CNRS-Universite d'Orleans, France
Correspondent: Click to Email
The ICP sources are particularly interesting for the deposition of amorphous carbon since they offer the possibility to control independently the ion energy from the ion flux bombarding the substrate, in contrast to capacitively coupled discharge. Diamondlike carbon coatings (a-C:H) were deposited with a novel inductively coupled plasma source (the Magnetic Pole Enhanced ICP or MaPE-ICP) designed and characterized in our laboratory. The MaPE-ICP uses a magnetic pole to concentrate the magnetic flux on the load (i.e. plasma) and shows very interesting features like high plasma density, good plasma uniformity and wide pressure range. Diamondlike carbon coatings were deposited with this source from CH4 and C2H2 precursors. The plasma was studied by Langmuir probe measurements, optical emission spectroscopy and microwave interferometry. Mass spectrometry including ion detection and ion energy distribution measurements have been carried out at the substrate holder surface in order to investigate directly the impinging species on the growing film. The plasma diagnostics and films characterization including FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) were undertaken for various processing parameters. The results were related to the coating properties like hardness and intrinsic stress.