Chemical modification of sputtered amorphous-carbon surfaces

Abstract

Methods to chemically passivate the surfaces of amorphous-carbon films (a-C) produced by dc magnetron sputtering were studied. The chemical composition of carbon surfaces produced via sputtering are dependent upon the environment to which the carbon is exposed immediately following deposition. When the sputtered film is vented to ambient conditions, free radicals produced at the surface during the deposition process are quenched by reaction with oxygen and/or water to form an oxidized, hydrophilic surface. If the sputtered carbon film is, however, exposed to a reactive gas prior to venting to ambient, the chemical nature of the resulting surface can be modified substantially. Specifically, a less highly oxidized and much more hydrophobic carbon surface is produced when the surface free radicals are quenched via either an addition reaction (demonstrated with a fluorinated olefin) or a hydrogen abstraction reaction (demonstrated with two alkyl amines). Chemical modification of amorphous-carbon films can also be accomplished by performing the sputtering in a reactive plasma formed from mixtures of argon with molecular hydrogen, amines, and perfluorocarbons. The elemental composition of these films, and the relative reactivity of the surfaces formed, were investigated via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and contact-angle goniometry, respectively. In the case of sputtering with a mixture of argon and hydrogen, increasing the hydrogen flow results in an increase in the amount of hydrogen incorporated into the carbon film and a decrease in the surface free energy. Sputtering in diethylamine produces an amorphous-carbon film into which nitrogen is incorporated. The free energies of the a-C:N surfaces produced in this process are similar to those of the a-C:H films. Sputtering in a fluorocarbon vapor results in the incorporation of fluorine into the film structure and the formation of very low free-energy surfaces. Increasing the concentration of the fluorocarbon in the sputtering plasma increases the amount of F incorporated into the film. At the highest fluorocarbon flow rates employed, a-C films were produced with stoichiometries and surface free energies comparable to those of bulk Teflon. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.