The influence of gas flow rate on the structural, mechanical, optical and wettability of diamond-like carbon thin films

In this research, diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method using gas mixture of CH₄ and Ar. The effect of different CH₄/Ar gas ratio on the structure, refractive index, transmission and hardness of the DLC thin films were investigated by means of Raman spectroscopy, ellipsometry, Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy and nano-indentation methods, respectively. Nuclear resonant reaction analysis was used to measure the amount of hydrogen and carbon in the thin films. Furthermore, wettability of the thin films was achieved by measuring of water contact angle (WCA). The results indicated that the structural properties of the diamond-like carbon thin films are strongly dependent on the composition of gas mixture. Based on ellipsometry results, refractive index of the thin films varied in the range of 1.89–2.06 at 550 nm. FTIR results determined that deposition of DLC thin films on silicon substrate led to an increase of the light transmission in IR region and these films have the potential to be used in silicon optics as the antireflective coatings in this region. Nano-indentation analysis showed that the thin films hardness changed in the range of 7.5–11 GPa. On the other hand hydrogen content and fraction of C‒H bonds in the samples increased by an increase in the gas ratio of CH₄/Ar. Also, WCA measurements indicated that WCA for thin films with gas ratio of 3/7 is the most and equal to 79°.