Development of process equipment for deposition of amorphous carbon films by pulsed plasmas with high plasma density

非晶碳膜在工业领域中有着广泛的应用。本研究采用高功率脉冲磁控溅射（HiPIMS）等高等离子体密度的脉冲等离子体沉积非晶碳薄膜。氩磁控溅射法沉积的薄膜硬度高于直流磁控溅射法沉积的薄膜，最高可达18GPa。此外，为了进一步改善薄膜的性能，HiPIMS还含有活性气体，从而沉积了薄的非晶碳膜。采用氩气/氮气HiPIMS沉积非晶态氮化碳薄膜。在含氮量为2.5%时，膜的硬度比不含氮时高1.3倍左右。非晶氢化碳薄膜也可通过反应氩/甲烷HiPIMS沉积。该方法包括物理气相沉积和等离子体增强化学气相沉积。随着甲烷馏分的增加，沉积速率急剧增加。

Amorphous carbon films have several applications in various industrial areas. In this study, thin amorphous carbon films are deposited by pulsed plasmas with high plasma density such as high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The hardness of the films deposited by argon HiPIMS is higher than that deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering and the maximum reaches 18GPa. Moreover, thin amorphous carbon films are deposited by HiPIMS containing reactive gases in order to achieve further improvement of the film properties. Thin amorphous carbon nitride films are deposited by argon/nitrogen HiPIMS. The hardness of the films at the nitrogen fraction of 2.5% is about 1.3 times higher than that without nitrogen. Amorphous hydrogenated carbon films are also deposited by reactive argon/methane HiPIMS. This method includes both physical vapor deposition and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Deposition rate abruptly increases with the increase in methane fraction.