Preparation of Carbon Surfaces for Sensing Applications via Plasma Hydrogenation

Graphite (HOPG) has been exposed to radio frequency (RF) plasmas of hydrogen and methane to produce hydrogen-terminated carbon surfaces, and hence model the use of plasma hydrogenated carbon as a substrate in sensing applications. Etching and/or growth and nucleation features are observed in scanning tunneling microscopy images. Surface coverage and size of features are found to depend upon the choice of source gas. Preliminary time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements suggest these features and the hydrogen content of the surfaces are related