Glass-like carbon films grown by pulsed hollow cathode via plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition

Abstract

Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition (PIII&D) systems based on pulsed metal tubes are a very promising technique to deposit diamond-like carbon and correlated thin films. A hollow cathode plasma can be appropriately used to locally deposit glass-like carbon films on small substrates by means of PIII&D. The morphology, microstructure, roughness as well as the investigation of the chemical structure of the as-deposited graphitic films outside the pulsed tube are reported. By the described PIII&D setup, the power of the discharge plasma can be properly adjusted to produce a range of disordered carbon films. But their structures are not so extensively changed since high temperatures (around 900 °C) are inherent in these conditions. Furthermore, there is a minimum power required to sustain the hollow cathode discharge when small tubes are used. Moreover, an additional effect caused by the intense bombardment of secondary electrons outside the tube can account for the growing of more ordered and rougher graphitic carbon coatings. We have then found that those nanostructured glass-like carbon films are strongly dependent on the power of the produced plasma that impinges on the substrate surface increasing its temperature.