Publication details
AFM Study of Hydrocarbon Thin Films
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2005 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | WDS'05 Proceedings of Contributed Papers: Part II - Physics of Plasmas and Ionized Media (ed. J. Safrankova) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Plasma physics |
| Keywords | plasma;polymer;films;argon;acetylene;pecvd;pulsed;radio frequency;discharge;afm;rough boundary |
| Description | In this paper atomic force microscope (AFM) study on hydrocarbon thin films was performed. Thin films were prepared using plasma enhanced vapour deposition (PECVD) in pulsed regime. The aim was to see whether the surface roughness of the films changes with the duty cycle. The AFM is a direct measuring technique for scanning surfaces of samples. From obtained images one can compute many quantities characterizing the surface. It is shown that the root mean square (RMS) value of the heights seems to be independent on duty cycle except for region from 10 to 15 \%. Outside of this region the RMS values of the heights vary in the range from 6,3 to 14,8 nm, while for 10 \% it is 96,3 nm and for 15 \% it's 61,7 nm. Unfortunately also the deposition time, which corresponds to different thicknesses of the films, was varied. This could be the reason for many times higher roughness inside the region. Further study of this problem would be needed. |