Influence of ion energy and flux composition on the properties of plasma-deposited amorphous carbon and amorphous hydrogenated carbon films

Abstract The impact energies of C + ions strongly influence the density of sp 2 and sp 3 CC bonds in amorphous carbon and hydrogenated amorphous carbon films via collisions causing vacancies and subplantations. The importance of these momentum-transferring collisions has been shown experimentally for three different particle fluxes, namely those from magnetron sputtering, plasma beam and r.f. plasma deposition. The concentrations of neutrals, radicals and ions in the different fluxes and the energies of these particles are discussed and compared with the film properties density, hardness and internal stress (typical properties which strongly depend on sp 3 CC bonds), and band gap and spin density (properties which depend mostly on sp 2 CC bonds). It is found that collisions producing vacancies and interstitials (subplantations) play the predominant role with regard to the macroscopic properties of the films, even for the complex particle fluxes emerging from r.f. discharges.