Abstract
We discussed amorphous-carbon, including diamond-like-carbon (DLC), film deposition using atmospheric pressure transient glow-microplasmas with a miniature gas flow. We developed a novel scheme for generating the transient glow microdischarge powered by high-voltage pulse trains. They were obtained by a burst pulse generator with a nonlinear transmission line (NLTL), which consisted of ceramic capacitors as a nonlinear element. Repetitive high-voltage burst pulses with a pulse width of 40 ns, the equivalent frequency of 12.5 MHz, were generated. A stabilization effect of the highly repetitive pulse trains on the discharge made it possible to deposit the amorphous-carbon film on a stainless steel plate cathode under atmospheric pressure with the deposition rate of 1.5μ/min. The film was characterized using SEM observation, Raman spectroscopic analysis and hardness measurement with a nanoindentor.
