Ion-implanted Mechanism of the Deposition Process for Diamond-Like Carbon Films

Due to the local densification, high-energy C and doped ions can greatly affect the bonding configurations of diamond-like carbon films. We investigate the corresponding affection of different incident ions with energy from 10 eV to 600 eV by Monte Carlo methods. The ion-implanted mechanism called the subplantation (for C, N, O, W, Y, etc.) is confirmed. Obvious thermal effect could be induced by the subplantation of the incident ions. Further, the subplantation of C ions is proved by in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). The observation from an atomic force microscope (AFM) indicates that the initial implantation of C ions might result in the final primitive-cell-like morphology of the smooth film (in an area of 1.2mm x 0.9mm, rms roughness smaller than 20nm by Wyko).