FORMATION OF CARBON COATINGS FROM THE GAS PHASE USING MICROWAVE PLASMA

The study examines the formation of carbon coatings produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in the PM-6 system developed at the Laboratory of Hydrogen and Plasma Technologies of the Branch of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For the first time, the PM-6 setup has been used to obtain carbon-based coatings. The influence of key technological parameters such as microwave discharge power, gas mixture composition, and silicon substrate temperature on the morphology, phase composition, and physicomechanical properties of the resulting coatings was investigated. The morphology and elemental composition of the coatings were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), while the phase composition was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and hardness was measured using the Vickers method. It was established that increasing the plasma discharge power to 1.1 kW and raising the silicon substrate temperature enhance the carbon content in the coating (up to 87,66±5,6 at.%) and improve deposition uniformity. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the formation of thin carbon layers with a predominantly graphitic structure. Following deposition, the surface hardness reached 1137 HV, which is twice that of the initial silicon substrate (416 HV). These results demonstrate the feasibility of controlled synthesis of carbon coatings through optimization of PECVD process parameters.

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