Inverted fireball deposition of carbon films with extremely low surface roughness

The surface of carbon films deposited with inverted plasma fireballs is analysed in this paper. Measurements were conducted with Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation. The latter was used to obtain Young’s modulus as well as Martens and Vickers hardness. The roughness of the film was measured by atomic force microscopy and its thickness was measured. It was shown with Raman spectroscopy that the films are homogeneous in terms of atomic composition and layer thickness over an area of about 125 × 125 mm. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that inverted plasma fireballs are a viable tool for obtaining homogeneous, large area carbon films with rapid growth and very little energy consumption. The obtained films show very low roughness.