Stresses in diamond-like carbon films

Abstract

Internal stresses have been measured in diamond-like carbon (DLC) films deposited by d.c. plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition from methane, acetylene, or cyclohexane, and in nitrogen containing DLC films deposited from acetylene, or cyclohexane and nitrogen. The total hydrogen content in the films and the fraction of bound hydrogen have been analyzed by forward recoil elastic scattering and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy respectively. It was found that in pure DLC films the stresses increase with increasing fraction of unbound hydrogen. The highest compressive stresses were obtained in the films deposited from methane and the lowest stresses in films deposited from cyclohexane. In the nitrogen containing DLC films the stresses decrease with increasing nitrogen content in the films. Stresses as low as 0.22 GPa were obtained in the films deposited from cyclohexane and nitrogen at a ratio of 1 15 in the plasma. © 1993.