On some properties and applications of tungsten-alloyed amorphous carbon films

Abstract

It has been shown that when hydrogenated amorphous carbon films are heavily doped with tungsten they can be made to combine such material properties as relatively high (metallic) electrical conductivity and high mechanical and chemical resistivities (typical of diamond-like carbon). This unique combination of properties, as well as the possibility of producing both electrically conducting and dielectric layers in the same diamond-polymer film structure, creates new perspectives for their application, e.g. in solid state device technology. In this paper we discuss three examples of tungsten-alloyed diamond-like film (DLF) applications. First of all, the characteristics of a DLF-based printing jet head are considered. Secondly, it is shown that there are good prospects for applying the films in the formation of Schottky contacts in integrated circuits (ICs) on GaAs substrates. Finally, some aspects of the localized processing of DLFs of different types by laser irradiation are discussed. There is considerable interest in DLF applications in optical recording, fabrication of photo-masks, and the manufacture of precise resistors, electromechanical sensors and very large-scale (VLS) ICs. Each of these examples not only extends the area of possible DLF applications but also gives us an additional insight into their properties.