Controlled fluoridation of amorphous carbon films deposited at reactive plasma conditions

• Main Authors: Yoffe Alexander, Zon Ilya, Feldman Yishay, Shelukhin Victor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2015-09-01
• Series: Materials Science-Poland
• Subjects: carbon deposition; reactive plasma; fluoridation
• Online Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/msp.2015.33.issue-3/msp-2015-0088/msp-2015-0088.xml?format=INT

A study of the correlations between plasma parameters, gas ratios, and deposited amorphous carbon film properties is presented. The injection of a C4F8/Ar/N2 mixture of gases was successfully used in an inductively coupled plasma system for the preparation of amorphous carbon films with different fluoride doping at room-temperature, using silicon as a substrate. This coating was formed at low-pressure and low-energy using an inductively coupled plasma process. A strong dependence between the ratios of gases during deposition and the composition of the substrate compounds was shown. The values of ratios between Ar (or Ar+N2) and C4F8 - 1:1 and between N2 and Ar - 1:2 in the N2/Ar/C4F8 mixture were found as the best for low fluoridated coatings. In addition, an example of improving the etch-passivation in the Bosch procedure was described. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy options, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray reflectivity were used for quantitative analysis of the deposited films.