Production of nitrogen-containing carbon plasma using shunting arc discharge for carbon nitride films preparation

摘要

A magnetically driven carbon-shunting arc discharge was generated in nitrogen gas circumstance and amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN_x) films were prepared. A silicon substrate was immersed into the plasma, and a series of pulse voltage was applied to the substrate synchronizing with ignition of the shunting arc with a peak current of 1.7 kA. The ambient nitrogen gas pressure was varied in wide range. The shunting arc plasma was successfully produced and was accelerated along carbon rails. Heating energy to generate the shunting arc had minimum value for variation of the ambient gas pressure. A spectroscopic measurement from the plasma light emission showed that the produced plasma contained nitrogen particles in ambient nitrogen gas circumstance. X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the prepared carbon films contained nitrogen and was obtained to be N/C ratio of 0.35 at 2 Pa nitrogen gas pressure.