Laser And Plasma Enhanced Deposition Of Diamond And Diamondlike Films By Physical And Chemical Vapor Deposition Techniques

The deposition of hydrogen free as well as hydrogenated hard, amorphous, diamondlike carbon films by a novel laser ablation and plasma hybrid technique (20nsec(FWHM), XeC1 laser output focussed by a lens onto the target at a power density of 2.5*10.8 W/cm.2) are described. In the novel laser ablation and plasma hybrid technique, the energy stored in a capacitor is fed synchronously with the ablating laser pulse into the laser ablated region of the target. The hydrogenated films are deposited by ablating the carbon films deliberately in hydrogen ambient using the capacitor discharge technique. The hydrogen content may be varied by controlling the energy stored in the capacitor. Hydrogen free, DLC films deposited by this new technique by ablating carbon targets in high vacuum have been characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry, FT-IR, TEM, and Microhardness maeasurements. To date, we have seen reduced extinction coefficient in the 2 to 2.5 eV range, enhanced hardness and a high value of band gap of 1.27 eV for films deposited by this technique.