An actinometric study of C2H2 plasma polymerization and film properties

Abstract

Thin polymer films were grown in radio frequency discharges containing C2H2. Actinometry revealed the trend in the plasma concentration of the CH species as a function of the operating pressure. The C–H bond density in the films, revealed by infrared analysis, was found to increase with the pressure of C2H2 in a similar way to that of the concentration of the CH species in the discharge. From transmission ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy data, optical parameters of the polymers, namely, the refractive index and the optical gap, were calculated. For the range of pressure studied, the refractive index decreased from 1.73 to 1.63 and the optical gap increased from 2.4 to 3.3 eV. Finally, measurements of the residual stress of the polymer films were carried out by the bending beam method, using a He–Ne laser, yielding values from 0.05 to 0.3 GPa.