FAST DEPOSITION OF AMORPHOUS-CARBON AND SILICON LAYERS

A new plasma deposition technique will be described. In this method a high density and strongly flowing argon plasma is admixed with monomers as CH4, C2H2, SiH4, etc. Through effective charge transfer and dissociative recombination the ion charge is transferred to the fully dissociated monomer fragments. As the to be deposited particles as C and Si have low ionization potentials they are preferably recharged. The method results in high deposition rates of a-C: H (up to 100 nm/s) and a-Si: H layers (30 nm/s). Properties of the layers will be reviewed and a tentative model for plasma description will be discussed.