Claims
- 1. A method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate comprising the steps of:(a) applying a negative-pulsed bias voltage to said substrate; and (b) immersing the biased substrate in a plasma containing ions simultaneously bearing carbon and hydrogen, and ions bearing boron, whereby the ions are projected onto the surface of said substrate and form an optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on the surface thereof, wherein said coating contains 4-8 atom percent boron.
- 2. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein the plasma is formed in a gas mixture of acetylene, an inert gas and a gas containing boron atoms.
- 3. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 2, wherein the gas containing boron atoms includes diborane.
- 4. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 2, wherein the inert gas include argon.
- 5. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of metals, plastics and glass.
- 6. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein the negative-pulsed bias voltage is between −50 V and −300 V.
- 7. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, further comprising the step of immersing the substrate in an inert gas plasma before said step of immersing the biased substrate in a plasma containing ions simultaneously bearing carbon and hydrogen, whereby surface contamination is removed by sputter cleaning.
- 8. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 7, wherein the negative-pulse biasing voltage is between −100 V and −1 kV.
- 9. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 7, wherein the inert gas include argon.
- 10. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein the substrate is maintained at a temperature between 0° C. and 200° C. during said step of immersing the biased substrate in a plasma.
- 11. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein said step of immersing the biased substrate in a plasma containing ions simultaneously bearing carbon and hydrogen and ions containing a dopant species is achieved using an inductively coupled plasma source.
- 12. The method for forming an adherent, optically transparent, scratch-resistant diamond-like coating on a substrate as described in claim 11, wherein the inductively coupled plasma source is operated at pressures between 0.02 Pa and 1 Pa.
REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/268,096, filed on Mar. 13, 1999.
Government Interests
This invention was made with government support under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to The Regents of the University of California. The government has certain rights in the invention.
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/268096 |
Mar 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/428269 |
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US |