Diamond-like carbon films deposited by electron beam excited plasma chemical vapor deposition

An electron beam excited plasma (EBEP) system can produce a high-density plasma by introducing a high-current and low-energy electron beam into a process chamber. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films prepared by EBEP-CVD systems were investigated for deposition rate, dynamic hardness and microstructure. The substrate bias voltage, substrate position and source gas were varied as the deposition parameters. It was found that when a higher negative bias voltage was applied to the substrate during deposition, the concentration of the sp(3) sites, the size of the graphite crystallite and the total hydrogen content decreased, whereas the density increased. The differences in the substrate position and source gas strongly affected the micro structural properties of the deposited DLC films. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.