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Etching of DLC films exposed to a plasma jet

K. GRIGOROV1,* , M. MASSI2,3, H. S. MACIEL2, F. M. FREITAS2, H. TOKU2, R. S. PESSOA2

Affiliation

  1. Institute of Electronics, 72, Blvd. “Tzarigradsko Chaussee”, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
  2. Technological Institute of Aeronautics, Plasmas and Processes Laboratory, 12228-900, S.J. Campos, SP, Brazil
  3. Braz Cubas University, 08773-380, Mogi das Cruzes, SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this work, an argon plasma jet was used to etch diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films which were grown on silicon (100) substrates by magnetron sputtering. The etching rates of the DLC material were investigated with respect to the ion energy, ion density, magnetic field intensity and plasma power for both perpendicular and inclined incidence of the plasma jet on the substrate. It was observed that the DLC etching rates (around 2-20 nm/min) increased up to 7-fold when the magnetic field in the jet plasma region increased from zero to 6 mT. Also, at a fixed cathode potential, a reduction in the etching rates was observed for angles of incidence lower than 90°. In order to explore in detail the surface changes due to the etching process, on a nanometric scale, the DLC films were analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The results indicated that by using this etching technique it was possible to reduce the formation of needle-like structures on the etched DLC surface..

Keywords

DLC, Thin films, Plasma etching, Plasma jet.

Submitted at: Nov. 1, 2006
Accepted at: Feb. 15, 2007

Citation

K. GRIGOROV, M. MASSI, H. S. MACIEL, F. M. FREITAS, H. TOKU, R. S. PESSOA, Etching of DLC films exposed to a plasma jet, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 9, Iss. 2, pp. 382-385 (2007)