Surface and plasma simulation of deposition processes: CH4 plasmas for the growth of diamondlike carbon

A surface model was developed for diamondlike-carbon film deposition, and was connected in a self-consistent way with a one-dimensional plasma chemistry and physics model for a CH4 radio-frequency (rf) discharge. The surface model considers the adsorption of multiple species (CH3, CH2, and H), and solves for the surface coverage of each species. Comparison is also done with a one-adsorbed-species model. Deposition is assumed to take place via direct ion incorporation, and ion-induced stitching of adsorbed neutrals; film removal takes place via etching and sputtering. The effects of ion flux/energy and surface temperature are examined in detail: At high ion energies direct ion incorporation dominates, in spite of competition with sputtering; at intermediate energies stitching prevails, while for lower ion energies etching can become largest. Mass balances ate written at the surface-gas interface, permitting the determination of the effective sticking coefficients of the reacting neutrals. The sticking coefficients calculated from the surface model are fed back into the gas-phase chemistry model to recalculate the neutral densities. The process is repeated until a self-consistent solution is obtained. It is shown that the effective sticking coefficient of a neutral changes drastically from a low value for the plasma-off (or low ion energy) state, to a high value for the plasma-on and high ion energy state, resulting in higher consumption at the surface. The results show that it is imperative for meaningful results to solve surface and gas-phase chemistry models in a self-consistent way, a fact demonstrated by successful comparison with experimental data for the deposition rate and the gas-phase densities. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.