Hard a-C : H films deposited at high deposition rates

In this work, we present hard-hydrogenated amorphous carbon films at high d eposition rate. The films were prepared on the cathode electrode of a conve ntional r.f. sputtering system. Hydrogenated amorphous carbon films with ex cellent properties, i.e. high hardness (15 GPa), relatively low stress (sim ilar to 1.3 GPa) and with a very high deposition rate (similar to 0.7 nm/s) were obtained at the conditions of high bias (-800 V) and high methane gas pressure (0.12 x 10(-1) mbar). The low band gap and the high I-D/I-G Raman ratio indicate that the films have high amount of sp(2) sites. (C) 1999 El sevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.