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The lowest threshold energy of ion bombardment for cubic boron nitride (cBN) film deposition is presented. cBN films are prepared on positively biased Si (100) substrates from boron trifluoride (BF3) gas in the high-density source region of an inductively coupled plasma with mean ion impact energies from 45 down to a few eV or less. The great decrease in the threshold ion energy is mainly attributed to specific chemical effects of fluorine as well as high ion-to-boron flux ratios. The results show evidence for the existence of a way to deposit cBN films through quasistatic chemical processes under ultralow-energy ion impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A potential rise acting as a local retarding field for drifting ions has been observed in front of a positively biased electron-absorbing substrate in a downstream, electron cyclotron resonance plasma. Increasing positive substrate bias shifted the plasma potential upward and decreased the sheath potential to a certain minimum (5–13 V) depending upon pressure (0.7–5 mTorr), to satisfy a current balance between the substrate holder and the surrounding wall. For the minimal sheath potential, the incident ion flux to the substrate was shown to decrease with increasing bias due to prevention of ion arrival by the retarding field. Soft ion bombardment at the minimal sheath potential in a hydrogen plasma was then used to etch silicon wafer surfaces as in vacuo pretreatment for nanocrystalline diamond deposition. The highest diamond particle density of the order of 107 cm-2 was finally obtained on a clean and smooth surface with minimal damage formed by low energy (≃10 eV), high flux ion irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the lower pressure limit of diamond growth using inductively coupled radio frequency plasma. Experimental details; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

Abstract: The wetting behavior of plasma-treated nanocrystalline diamond films is studied for biocoating applications. The films are prepared from Ar-rich/N2/CH4 and Ar-rich/H2/CH4 mixtures by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and further treated by microwave hydrogen and oxygen plasma exposures separately. The hydrogen plasma treatment increases the surface roughness only slightly without a perceptible change in surface morphology and composition, and shows little improvement in wettability. In contrast, the oxygen plasma treatment produces fine protrusions and increases the oxygen concentration near the surface to ~11at.%, and then the contact angle of polar water and apolar 1-bromonaphthalene is drastically reduced from 92° and 4.7°–6.9° to almost zero degree, respectively. The extremely hydrophilic behavior of the oxygen-containing film is exclusively attributed to a great increase in the polar component of the apparent surface free energy up to ~34mJ/m2. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Asia-Pacific International Symposium on the Basics and Applications of Plasma Technology (APSPT) has been held in Taiwan or Japan every two–four years since 1997. It is an important annual event in the Asia-Pacific area and has been a great platform for scientists all around the world sharing novel and state-of-the-art research findings and exchanging innovative ideas in the field of plasma science and technology. The 10th APSPT was held on December 15–17, 2017 at Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. There has been a very strong program including 207 papers contributed by participants from eight countries. This Special Issue focuses on the following topics, which were also the focus topics in the 10th APSPT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes ion energy and flux incident upon a positively biased substrate in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) during diamond growth. Increase in plasma potential allowed by an electrically floated characteristic of the ICP source.

The Asia-Pacific International Symposium on the Basics and Applications of Plasma Technology (APSPT) has been held every two to four years since 1997, promoting an Asia-Pacific essential networking to share most innovative research results in low-temperature plasma society, in Taiwan until APSPT-8, 2013. In the meantime, it first changed its venue to Nagasaki, Japan, from APSPT-9 in 2015, to further expand its international role in scientific community with industrial society. At the same time, it was jointly organized with the 28th Symposium on Plasma Science for Materials, which was originated as the International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry since 1987, cultivating the international interdisciplinary field in both basic plasma science and practical applications based on materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Asia-Pacific International Symposium on the Basics and Applications of Plasma Technology (APSPT) has been held in Taiwan every two to four years since 1997. It is an important annual event in the Asia-Pacific area, providing an excellent platform for exchanging new ideas and sharing the most advanced knowledge in plasma-related science and technology. Thanks to the participants from 10 countries, in the 8th APSPT, we had a very strong program with 187 papers delivered at National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in December 20–22, 2013. This special issue documents the selected presentations in all kinds of plasma science and technology. There were 51 papers submitted after the conference and 32 accepted to be published in this special issue. We also thank the authors, the reviewers, the editors, and the publisher, who have seamlessly worked together to publish this special issue in time. I hope it will help advance our knowledge in plasma science and technology and cultivate future scientific collaboration among those who participated in APSPT 2013. I look forward to seeing all participants again in the 9th APSPT at Nagasaki University, Japan, in December 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: A pulse-modulated direct-current methane plasma is used to deposit amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films on Si and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrates. The structure and mechanical properties of the films are examined by applying a negative pulse bias voltage of 0.5 to 3kV to the substrate at a pulse bias period of 100 to 200μs. The deposition rate on both Si and PMMA increases with increasing the net input power, independent of the pulse period. The Raman spectra demonstrate that the films on Si are diamond-like carbon (DLC), while those on PMMA are polymer-like or soft amorphous carbon because of higher crystallinity of the sp2 phase and lower nanoscale hardness. The residual compressive stress of the films on PMMA is constantly low ranging from 0 to 2GPa due exclusively to high flexibility of PMMA, which causes the easy relief of the stress and thus the density decrease in the films. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]