Mass spectrometric and Langmuir probe measurements reveal that the plasma chemistry of an expanding Ar/C2H2 plasma which is used for deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon is dominated by argon ion-induced dissociation of the precursor gas. The ion-induced dissociation is very efficient leading to complete depletion under certain conditions. The ion fluence as determined from modeling the mass spectrometry results is in good agreement with Langmuir probe measurements suggesting a one-to-one relation between the argon ion and acetylene consumption. The good correlation found between the growth rate and the acetylene consumption rate expresses the efficient use of the dissociation products.
The chemistry of argon, argon/nitrogen and argon/nitrogen/acetylene expanding thermal plasmas is investigated in order to unravel the role of plasma species in the fast deposition (up to 40 nm s −1 ) of hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:H:N) films. The precursor dissociation is determined and the emission from the different plasmas is compared in order to distinguish possible mechanisms for species production and excitation.
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