Chemical structure and surface morphology evolution of glow discharge polymer films by Ar‐ions intermittent etching

Abstract

The Ar-ions intermittent-etching technique was successfully incorporated during the deposition of glow discharge polymer (GDP) films. The ionic components and ion energy distributions (IEDs) of C 4 H 8 /H 2 and C 4 H 8 /H 2 /Ar plasma were diagnosed by an energy-resolved mass spectrometer, respectively. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and white-light interferometer were used to studying the chemical structure, surface morphology, and roughness of the GDP films, which are deposited with the various time of Ar-ions intermittent etching. With the introduction of Ar into the chamber, the intensity of the C-H absorption peaks becomes weak and the large-mass C-H species were ionized and dissociated from the mass spectrometer results. The surface roughness of GDP films are decreased with Ar-ions intermittent etching, the lowest surface roughness (Rq) is only 33.6 nm when the intermittent cycle is 60 minutes/15 minutes. The highest sp 3 CH 3 (sym) absorption peaks are attributed to samples also with 60-minute/15-minute intermittent cycle, which shortens the length of the carbon chain and reduces the probability of the cluster formations.