Planarization of substrate surface by means of ultrathin diamond-like carbon film

Abstract The effect of reactive ion etching on surface roughness of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films was investigated. The DLC carbon films were deposited by d.c. magnetron sputtering of graphite target and r.f. plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at room temperature. Plasma etching of DLC films were performed by r.f. reactive ion etching in oxygen. It is shown that the surface roughness of the diamond-like carbon film under reactive ion etching was less than that of the original substrate.