Characteristics of pulsed discharge plasmas at atmospheric pressure for preparation of large-area amorphous carbon films

Summary form only given. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have a lot of unique properties for industrial applications. Atmospheric pressure discharge plasmas are very attractive for preparation of DLC films because of high-speed deposition due to the use of high-density plasma and the cost reduction by removal of vacuum system. In the present study, we investigate characteristics of pulsed discharge plasmas at atmospheric pressure by using a three electrode configuration for preparation of large-area amorphous carbon films. A line pulsed discharge plasma was generated by the parallel plate geometry with a gap width of 2 mm to perform large area film preparation. Two quartz glasses were placed between two electrodes to produce dielectric barrier discharges. A mixed gas of He as a carrier gas and CH₄ as a precursor was supplied to the discharge region from the upper side of the parallel-plate electrodes. The high-voltage, high repetition bipolar pulse with a fast rise time was applied between the parallel-plate electrodes. In addition, the bias electrode was placed at a distance of 5 mm from the lower side of the parallel-plate electrodes to extract the plasma on the stainless-steel substrate for a film deposition. To achieve high density, homogeneous glow-type discharge plasmas, independent control of the bias voltage was performed. It was confirmed that amorphous carbon films were successfully prepared by the line pulsed discharge plasmas. In the conference, characteristics of the pulsed discharge plasmas and the properties of the amorphous carbon films will be shown.