Effects of hydrogen gas on the properties of DLC films deposited by plasma CVD

Plasma CVD에 의한 DLC 박막 제작시 수소가스의 영향

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been prepared by a widely-used plasma CVD with an rf (13.56MHz) plasma of $CH_4$ gas. The hydrogen incorporated in DLC films plays an important role of determining the film properties, but its exact role has not been clear. In this study, the effect of hydrogen on the film properties of DLC has been examined by adding the hydrogen gas to the $CH_4$ gas during deposition and by exposing the prepared film to the hydrogen plasma. As the content of additive hydrogen gas increases, the density and hardness of the film increase, but the growth rate decreases. The FT-IR spectroscopy results show that the number of C-H bonds decreases with increasing the hydrogen gas. Also, the variation in the position of "G" and "D" peaks due to additive hydrogen, which has been measured by the Raman spectroscopy, indicates of $sp^3$ fraction.