Synthesis of fluorinated diamond-like carbon films by the plasma immersionion processing technique

The synthesis of fluorinated diamond-like carbon (F-DLC) films was investig ated for the first time using the plasma immersion ion processing technique . A pulsed glow discharge plasma was generated at a pressure of 1 Pa from a cetylene and hexafluoroethane gas mixtures and the films were deposited on silicon (100) substrates by applying a pulsed bias to the substrate holder. The film hardness, wear resistance and nonwetting properties were found to be strongly dependent on the fluorine content incorporated into the coatin gs. With an optimum gas ratio, the deposited F-DLC films were found to have nonwetting properties similar to Teflon((R)), but were 10 times harder (8 GPa). (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society.