Low temperature plasma processing for cell growth inspired carbon thin films fabrication

The recent bio-applications (i.e. bio-sensing, tissue engineering and cell proliferation etc.) are driving the fundamental research in carbon based materials with functional perspectives. High stability in carbon based coatings usually demands the high density deposition. However, the standard techniques, used for the large area and high throughput deposition of crystalline carbon films, often require very high temperature processing (typically >800 °C in inert atmosphere). Here, we present a low temperature (<150 °C) pulsed-DC plasma sputtering process, which enables sufficient ion flux to deposit dense unhydrogenated carbon thin films without any need of substrate-bias or post-deposition thermal treatments. It is found that the control over plasma power density and pulsed frequency governs the density and kinetic energy of carbon ions participating during the film growth. Subsequently, it controls the contents of sp3 and sp2 hybridizations via conversion of sp2 to sp3 hybridization by ion's energy relaxation. The role of plasma parameters on the chemical and surface properties are presented and correlated to the bio-activity. Bioactivity tests, carried out in mouse fibroblast L-929 and Sarcoma osteogenic (Saos-2) bone cell lines, demonstrate promising cell-proliferation in these films.