Structural Analysis of Diamond-like Carbon Films Deposited by RF (13.56 MHz) in a Methane Gas Plasma Atmosphere

摘要

A plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique is used to deposit hydrogenated carbon films on silicon wafers by methane gas plasma in both diode and triode reactors with a hollow RF electrode. It is well known that DLC films are elaborated under ion bombardment and their properties are determined by the amount of sp~3/sp~2 hybridization ratio. For structural analysis the films were characterized by X-ray Auger electron spectroscopy (XAES) in both N(E) and dN(E)/ dE to assess the sp~3/sp~2 ratio of the DLC films. Also the electron energy loss (EELS) spectra are recorded to show features corresponding to plasmon and core loss energies. In comparison with an evaporated amorphous carbon films (a-C) and graphite structures, the specimens spectra show a mixed of sp~2 and sp~3 bonds in the DLC films in both XAES and EELS analysis.