Influence of the ion energy on the growth and structure of thin hydrocarbon films

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Abstract
Noncrystalline hydrocarbon films were deposited from methane plasmas in an electron‐cyclotron‐resonance plasma reactor. The films were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and high‐energy ion‐beam analysis. Film properties were investigated as a function of the energy of ions impinging on the surface of the growing film. The ion energy was varied by applying a dc bias to the sample in the range from 30 to 200 eV. The ion energy was measured with a retarding field analyzer under identical experimental conditions. An abrupt change was found in the sp3/sp2 ratio in the energy interval from 80 to 120 eV. Other film properties such as the refractive index, density, and hydrogen‐to‐carbon ratio exhibit a more or less monotonic dependence on the ion energy. The results are compared with published data on hydrocarbon films. An analytical model was developed to describe the energy dependence of the hydrogen fraction in the films. It is based on the assumption that displacement of hydrogen atoms is the dominating mechanism that controls the hydrogen fraction in hydrocarbon films. The results are also discussed on the basis of the fully constrained network model.