Amorphous diamond-like carbon film prepared by shunting arc plasma-based ion implantation and deposition method

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. The shunting arc discharge is an alternating capacitor discharge through a rod of metal or semi-metal. An optimization of the discharge condition has realized the self-ignition of the arc discharge at a low input power to the rod, leading to a much longer lifetime of the rod compared with the conventional shunting arc and the peripheral arc. The shunting-arc-produced plasma mainly consists of metal or semi-metal ions, and it has also been demonstrated that the ions can be extracted from the plasma. Thus, the shunting arc can be used as pulsed ion sources of metal and semi-metal for plasma-based ion implantation and deposition (PBII-D). In this study, an amorphous diamond-like carbon film was prepared by PBII-D using a pulsed carbon shunting arc at pressure of 10/sup -3/ Pa. The morphology and characteristics of the film were measured by using XPS, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy. The plasma was generated by the release of the capacitor energy (20 /spl mu/F at a charging voltage of 1.2 kV) to serve into a carbon rod of 2 mm in diameter and 40 mm long. The carbon rod was held at each end by a pair of 10 /spl times/ 10 mm square tungsten plates. The shunting arc current showed a damping oscillation with a peak current of 1.2 kA at 20 /spl mu/s. A negative high voltage pulse of -0.3 to 3 kV with a pulse width of 10 /spl mu/s and 20 kHz was repeatedly applied to the target of 80 mm in diameter, which was located at 40 mm away from the plasma source. The maximum film thickness was obtained at an applied voltage of around 1 kV. The XRD pattern indicated that the prepared film was amorphous. The XPS measurements showed that the film included tungsten. This means that the film of carbon-tungsten alloy can be prepared by the shunting arc system.