Amorphous diamond-like carbon film growth by KrF- and ArF- excimer laser PLD: Correlation with plume properties

A comparative study of ArF- and KrF-laser deposition of amorphous diamond-like carbon (DLC) films and relevant carbon plasmas has been performed. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and EELS analysis of the DLC films deposited on Si and NaCl substrates were utilized to characterize the high quality ArF- and KrF-laser deposited films (up to 84% of sp{sup 3} bonded carbon in 7 J/cm{sup 2} -ArF-laser DLC film). Gated ICCD imaging, luminescence and ion current probe diagnostics of the carbon plume have revealed quite different properties of carbon plasmas generated by ArF- and KrF- lasers. KrF-laser (6.7 J/cm{sup 2}) irradiation produces a less energetic carbon plasma containing larger amounts of C{sub 2} and probably larger clusters compared with ArF-laser irradiation at the same energy fluence. We conclude that the more energetic and highly-atomized ArF-laser carbon plasma results in the better diamond-like properties.