Abstract
Hard amorphous carbon thin films containing small amounts of oxygen were deposited by the radio frequency (13.56MHz) self-bias method, using isopropanol as a starting material. The effect of the deposition temperature and the behavior of oxygen atoms during the film depositions were investigated in detail with controlling the deposition temperature by the plasma pulsed deposition technique. As a result, the deposition rates decreased by about 50% as compared with the diamond-like carbon film depositions from isobutane, because deoxygenation reactions from the films actively progressed. The effect of the deposition temperature was almost similar to that found in the diamond-like carbon film depositions but, an increase in the film density and a decrease of the film surface micro-roughness were recognized. The deposited films were considered to consist of a three-dimensional network structure of carbon chains, within which carbonyl structures and graphite-like carbon clusters were intermixed. Furthermore, as the film formation ability of the applied deposition method in this study was exceedingly high, C=C=O structures in the deposited films were observed by FT-IR spectroscopy, which was considered to be the precursors for the deoxygenation reactions from the films.
