Influence of flow rate on different properties of diamond-like nanocomposite thin films grown by PECVD

Abstract

Diamond-like nanocomposite (DLN) thin films were deposited on pyrex glass substrate using different flow rate of haxamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) based liquid precursor with nitrogen gas as a glow discharged decomposition by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. The significant influence of different precursor flow rates on refractive index and thickness of the DLN films was measured by using spectroscopic filmatrics and DEKTAK profilometer. Optical transparency of the DLN thin films was analyzed by UV-VIS-NIR spectrometer. FTIR spectroscopy, provides the information about shifted bonds like SiC2, Si-C, Si-O, C-C, Si-H, C-H, N-H, and O-H with different precursor flow rate. We have estimated the hardness of the DLN films from Raman spectroscopy using Gaussian deconvolution method and tried to investigate the correlation between hardness, refractive index and thickness of the films with different precursor flow rates. The composition and surface morphology of the DLN films were investigated by X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) respectively. We have analyzed the hardness by intensity ratio (ID/IG) of D and G peaks and correlates with hardness measurement by nanoindentation test where hardness increases from 27.8 μl/min to 80.6μl/min and then decreases with increase of flow rate from 80.6μl/min to 149.5μl/min. Finally, we correlates different parameters of structural, optical and tribological properties like film-thickness, refractive index, light transmission, hardness, surface roughness, modulus of elasticity, contact angle etc. with different precursor flow rates of DLN films

Multiwavelength Raman analysis of SiOx and N containing amorphous diamond like carbon films

“…The Si-H species probably arise from the recombination reactions in the gas phase between the dissociated monomer and carrier gas. It was proposed that the Si-H may result from the cleavage of the Si-CH 3 group [36] or as a result of HMDSN byproduct reactions forming radicals containing Si-H bond. C-H n peak is well pronounced showing that carbon is bonded with hydrogen in the films.…”

Stability of a‐C:H:SiOx coating on polypropylene to chemical sterilization

“…[30] The CO 2 vibration occurs in the 2,300-2,370 cm −1 region. [31] A wide absorption peak at 2,800-3,000 cm −1 indicates to a relatively high hydrogen content in the coating. This wide absorption band is a superposition of various stretching vibrations of C H bond, and can be deconvoluted into individual peaks corresponding to sp 3 CH 2 (asymmetrical-2,850 cm −1 ); sp 3 CH 3 (symmetrical-2,870 cm −1 ); sp 3 CH 2 (asymmetrical-2,925 cm −1 ); sp 3 CH 2 (olefinic-2,950 cm −1 ); and F I G U R E 5 Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra for polypropylene before (black lines) and after (red lines) sterilization [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] sp 3 CH 3 (asymmetrical-2,960 cm −1 ) bonds.…”

Synthesis of Nanostructure Carbon Films Deposited by Microwave Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique at Room Temperature

“…Beeman et al (21) suggested that the shift in G band toward the lower frequency is due to the increase of sp 3 -bonded atomic sites in amorphous carbon films. The I D /I G ratio and FWHM have been used as graphitization indication of the structure of carbon-based materials (22). It is evident from the table that I D /I G ratio is changing with the gas concentration.…”