Effect of hydrogen flow on the properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films fabricated by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a-C:H, so-called diamond-like carbon. DLC) have exceptional physical and mechanical properties and have wide applications. In the present study, amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C:H) have been deposited on a Si (100) substrate at different hydrogen flow using electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD). The flow of hydrogen changed from 10 sccm to 40 sccm and the flow of acetylene was fixed at 10 sccm. The microstructure and properties of the a-C:H were measured using visible Raman spectra, Fourier transform infrared (FUR) spectroscopy. UV-VIS spectrometer, surface profilometer and nano-indentation. The results showed that the sp(3) content and sp(3)-CH2 structure in the amorphous hydrogenated carbon films increased with the hydrogen flow. The deposition rate decreased with the hydrogen flow. The residual stress and the nano-hardness of the amorphous hydrogenated carbon films increased with the hydrogen flow. Consequently, the a-C:H film become more diamond-like with the increase of hydrogen flow. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.