Spectro-Ellipsometric Studies of Diamond-like Carbon Films Deposited by the Plasma Decomposition of Hydrocarbons

 Diamond-likecarbon (DLC) films were deposited on silicon substrates by the plasma decomposition of hydrocarbons under various conditions, and studied by the spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). We used the effective medium approximation with the dispersion model developed Forouhi and Bloomer to determine simultaneously both the structure and the optical constants of the DLC films from their ellipsometric spectra. Especially, we investigated the variation of the multilayer structure including the interface layer, of the refractive indices, and of the extinction coefficients as the deposition conditions were varied; substrate pretreatment procedure, hydrocarbon precursors and the substrate bias voltage were varied.