Rj. Lade et al., INVESTIGATION OF HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-CARBON (A-C-H) FILMS PRODUCEDBY ARF (193 NM) LASER-ABLATION OF POLY(METHYL METHACRYLATE), DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS, 7(2-5), 1998, pp. 699-703
Hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films have been deposited on Si,
quartz and NaCl by pulsed 193-nm laser ablation of poly (methyl-metha
crylate) under vacuum. Wavelength dispersed studies of the visible emi
ssion accompanying the ablation plume show it to be dominated by the B
almer series of atomic hydrogen. The extent of the emission plume sugg
ests that electronically excited H atoms are created in flight, probab
ly via collisions between much larger particles produced in the primar
y ablation process. Such a picture accords with the results of microco
mbustion analysis and infra-red transmission spectroscopy, both of whi
ch indicate that, compared to the original target material, the deposi
ted a-C:H film is deficient in H (and O). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.
A.