COMPARATIVE DIAGNOSTICS OF ARF-LASER AND KRF-LASER GENERATED CARBON PLUMES USED FOR AMORPHOUS DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON-FILM DEPOSITION

A comparative study of ArF- and KrF-laser generated carbon plasmas has been performed under PLD conditions of amorphous diamond-like carbon (DLC) films. Gated-ICCD species-resolved imaging, luminescence spectro scopy and ion probe diagnostics have revealed distinct differences bet ween the carbon plumes generated by ArF- and KrF-lasers. KrF-laser (6. 7 J/cm(2)) irradiation produces a less energetic carbon plasma contain ing larger amounts of luminescent C-2 compared with ArF-laser ablation at the same energy fluence. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and EELS analy sis of the DLC films deposited on Si[100] and NaCl substrates were uti lized to characterize the high quality ArF- and KrF-laser deposited fi lms (up to 84% of sp(3) bonded carbon for 7 J/cm(2) ArF-laser DLC film ). The more energetic and highly-atomized ArF-laser carbon plasma appe ars to be responsible for the better diamond-like properties.