Properties of amorphous hydrogenated carbon films from ArF laser-induced C2H2 photolysis.

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C:H) have been deposited using 193-nm ArF laserinduced photolysis. The source gas was C sub 2H sub 2 (5%), diluted in argon (95%). The substrate temperature was varied between 150 and 350 degree C. Infrared spectroscopic analysis yields results on hydrogen content and sp high 3/sp high 2 carbon bond ratio. For the H/C atomic ratio values near 1.0 and for the sp high 3/sp high 2 bond ratio values near 10 are obtained. The corresponding values for plasma-deposited a-C:H films from C sub 2H sub 2 are distinctly lower. Electrical resistivity, refractive index, optical gap, and microhardness have also been determined