AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS1-WeM

Paper PS1-WeM11
Plasma-Surface Interactions During Deposition of Hard Carbon Materials

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 11:20 am, Room 2009

Session: Plasma-Surface Interactions II
Presenter: E.R. Fisher, Colorado State University
Authors: D. Liu, Colorado State University
J.M. Stillhan, Colorado State University
E.R. Fisher, Colorado State University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Hard carbon-based materials such as carbon nitride and diamond-like carbon (DLC) have many desirable properties such as high hardness, good thermal conductivity, and high electrical resistance. Although plasma deposition and etching of these materials has been widely studied, very little has been reported on gas-phase ion and electron kinetics in these systems and even less is available on plasma-surface interactions. We have performed Langmuir probe and energy analysis-based mass spectrometry measurements to characterize the gas-phase of low pressure, 13.56 MHz inductively coupled plasma molecular beams. In addition, hydrogenated DLC and a-C:N films were deposited on silicon wafers at different substrate potentials to determine the effect of ion bombardment on film properties. Films were characterized via FTIR, SEM, AFM and nanoindentation measurements, and results demonstrate that ion energy has a significant effect on the composition and morphology of plasma deposited DLC films. Most importantly, we have used our unique imaging of radicals interacting with surfaces (IRIS) technique to directly examine surface interactions of radicals during plasma deposition. IRIS data for CH and C@sub 2@ radicals in hydrocarbon plasmas and CH, CN, NH, and NH@sub 2@ radicals in a-C:N deposition systems will be presented. These species display very different surface reactivity that is dependent on plasma parameters, feed gases, and the electronic configuration of the molecule. For example, CH and CN are highly reactive during a-C:N deposition, whereas C@sub 2@, NH and NH@sub 2@ display intermediate reactivity that is highly dependent on substrate bias. IRIS results will be correlated to gas-phase and surface analysis data to provide more comprehensive mechanisms for hard carbon deposition systems.