Copper thin films on plasma-treated glass substrates
Abstract
A vacuum coating system for thermal evaporation was reconfigured to include a DC glow discharge system for plasma bombardment of substrates before the deposition process. Cu films were deposited onto glass substrates using this modified coating system. The glass substrates where exposed to argon plasma discharge for ten minutes before copper metallization, without breaking the vacuum. It was observed that less surface imperfections and higher adhesion were manifested by the Cu films on plasma-treated glass substrates as compared to glass substrates which did not undergo plasma treatment. Higher percent transmission was achieved for thermally evaporated Cu film of 16.32% compared to PAD samples of 9.72%,7.315 and 11.35%, respectively at around 566-570nm.
