This work is submitted as a thesis in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

Abstract

The specially designed plasma fOCLlS device with appropriate modification, energized by 9~lF, 18 kV fast discharging capacitor bank with storage energy of 1.45 kJ is used for the deposition of carbon thin films. The process starts with ablating high purity graphite (99.99% pure) fitted at the anode tip, which serves as a carbon source. The system consists of an electrode assembly of graphite inserted copper anode (tapered) sUlTounded symmetrically with six cathode rods. The length of anode is 152 111m with tip diameter 10 m111 and bottom diameter 18 111m respectively. The substrate holder is designed to hold the silicon substrates at different positions and shutter is designed to protect the substrates from low energy ion flux. The films are deposited on the silicon <100> substrates (8x8xO.5 111m3) for 20 good fOCLlS shots in argon plasma environment at different radial positions in front of the anode tip. The deposited films are characterized by Raman spectroscopy and are found to have characteristic D and G-bands, typical of amorphous carbon films. The band intensity ratio (ID/IG) increases from the center to outermost position with values 1.9, 3.6 and 4.3 respectively, showing a decreasing Sp3 content with respect to Sp2 domains. The surface morphology of . deposited films is analyzed with scanning' electron microscopy (SEM) and result shows that smoothness of films increases from center to outermost position.