Fast growth of conductive amorphous carbon films by HFCVD with filament temperature control

Amorphous carbon (a-C) films were synthesized on quartz substrates through a hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) method. Effect of filament temperature on the thickness, structural, morphological and electrical properties of a-C films was investigated. Both the crystalline quality and sp2 content of a-C films increased by raising the filament temperature from 1800 °C to 2000 °C. Sharp increase of the surface roughness was observed as the filament temperature increased from 2000 °C to 2100 °C. The a-C films deposited at the filament temperature of 2000 °C with a high growth rate of 35 nm/min exhibited the optimal quality with a small roughness of 0.546 nm and a low resistivity of 1.67 × 10−2 Ω·cm. These results indicated that HFCVD is a good method to prepare conductive a-C films rapidly and effectively.