Gas barrier properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films coated on polymers by surface-wave plasma chemical vapor deposition

Gas barrier characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) thin films coated on polymer sheets using the large-area surface-wave plasma (SWP) were studied. With SWP in He and CH4 gas mixture, a-C:H films were deposited over about 100 mm in diameter on high density polyethylene or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheets at temperature less than 70 °C. Experimental results show that gas permeation in the case of a-C:H film coating on PET sheet was reduced by a factor of more than 150 (0.27 cm3/m2 day atm), compared with that before coating. Plasma characteristics of SWP, such as electron density and electron energy distribution functions, and other film characteristics measured with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscope are presented and discussed.