Plasma-enhanced chemical-vapour-deposition of thin films by corona discharge at atmospheric pressure

Abstract A corona discharge (also called dielectric barrier discharge or silent discharge) near or at atmospheric pressure was used for the deposition of organic and inorganic thin films at low temperatures. Inorganic SiO x thin films were deposited with tetramethylsilane (TMS, Si[CH 3 ] 4 ) or tetraethylortosilicate (TEOS, Si[OC 2 H 5 ] 4 ) in oxygen-containing atmospheres. In inert argon/nitrogen atmospheres, TMS formed amorphous plasmapolymerlike hydrogenated silicon carbon coatings (a-SiC:H). Hydrocarbons like methane (CH 4 ), ethine (C 2 H 2 ) or propargyl alcohol (HC 2 CH 2 OH) as monomers lead to polymer-like amorphous hydrogenated carbon coatings (a-C:H). With tetrafluoroethene (C 2 F 4 ) teflon-like carbon coatings (a-C:F) were deposited. Surface energies between 16 and 66 mN m −1 on silicon and between 16 and 62 mN m −1 on polypropylene were obtained depending on the film composition.