Influence of Hydrogen Content on Optical and Mechanical Performances of Diamond-Like Carbon Films on Glass Substrate

Abstract

The protective layer for cover glass of touch panel screen for electronic mobile devices is required to have good mechanical properties and decent optical transparency simultaneously. The hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (a-C:H) films were deposited on glass substrate by RF-PECVD in the negative stage potential mode (NP mode), as well as the ground stage potential mode (GP mode). The impact of hydrogen content, affected by stage potential and RF power, on optical and mechanical properties was investigated. The results show that hydrogen content decreases with increasing RF power, due to the dehydrogenation effect. Higher hydrogen content in films results in lower refractive index, lower extinction coefficient, lower optical absorptions, larger optical band gap and higher transmittance, but lower hardness and wearing resistance. Therefore, although the GP mode DLC is optically favorable because of higher hydrogen content, the NP mode one is far more superior from mechanical standpoint. A compromise can be reached to deposit an ultrathin layer of DLC in NP mode, which offers a good combination of properties to meet the requirement for the protective layer of cover glass.