Production and control of high-pressure surface-wave plasmas for water-repellant fluorocarbon film deposition

For the configuration enabling the best balance between pressure and homogeneity, fluorocarbon polymer films have been deposited on silicon substrates for different reactive gas mixtures (CF4+C4F8) in argon. The water-repellency property of the deposited polymer films has been determined by contact angle measurements, and linked to observations of the gas phase by OES measurements in the visible spectral range. The absence of film when pure CF4 was used as a reactive gas is explained by the presence of oxygen in the discharge, which is probably released in the gas phase through etching of the quartz plate.