| Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is used to deposit thin films on surfaces at low temperatures. This technique has required vapor phase precursors to date, which limits the number and types of precursors available for depositing films. This thesis is about alleviating this limitation by injecting liquids directly into the low pressure (< 1 Torr) plasma. We coupled an automotive fuel injector to a reactor and estimated several aspects of the operation of the injector. We also deposited thin films on a silicon wafer using the injector and an argon plasma. They were observed by optical microscopy, an n&k analyzer, profilometer, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. The films deposited by n-hexane had growth rates of approximately 84 nm/min and the films made using ethanol had growth rates of approximately 31 nm/min. We also found that iron nano-particles could be incorporated into a film (using hexane as the solvent) about 4.3. |
