The Magnetic Filter Pulse Cathodic Vacuum Arc Discharge Deposition System Developed And The Synthesis Of Thin Films

In this work, the first Filtered Pulsed Cathode Vacuum Arc Deposition (FPCVAD) system inChina has been set up. The influence of the arc voltage and the focus magnetic field of MEVVAplasma source as well as the positive bias and the guide magnetic field of the duct to arc dischargeand plasma transportation through the duct is studied systematically. Results indicate that themagnetic filter not only works as the guiding duct of the vacuum arc plasma flux, but also acts assecond anode, and generate vacuum arc discharge between the duct and cathode. It is shown thatthe characteristics and parameters of the FVPCVAD system with duct positive bias appliedbetween the filtering duct and cathode ,which is proposed first time in this work, are verydifferent form that with duct positive bias applied between the filtering duct and anode. Largercathode vacuum arc discharge scale is observed with the duct positive bias applied between thefiltering duct and cathode. Equivalent circuits of cathode vacuum arc discharge of the system attwo work mode described above are presented, and are use to explain some experiment results.The mechanisms of the magnetic field influence to the stability of the vacuum discharge areanalyzed also, and it is proved that the second anode action of the magnetic filtering duct canimprove the vacuum arc discharge stability of the system dramtically. Amorphous diamond andcarbon nitride thin films were synthesized by filtered pulsed cathode vacuum arc dischargemethod. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy analysis show thatthe sp3 contents of amorphous diamond films synthesized with the substrate negative bias inthe range 20~200V are from 50% to 81%, and the highest sp3 contents are obtained at80~110V. It is also shown that Ar ion beam sputtering cause decrease of the sp3 contents onthe film surface. Amorphous carbon nitride films with N/C ratio from 0.1 to 0.31 have beenprepared at nitrogen pressure in the range of 0.67 ~9.3×10E(-2)Pa. XPS and Ramananalysis results indicate the N/C ratio in the film increased with the nitrogen pressure, but theincrease of the nitrogen pressure reduce the deposition rate. The analysis results of the N1Sspectra indicate that the dominance of the C=N bonds over the C-N bonds in the film.