Pulsed plasma vapour deposition of carbon materials: Advantages and challenges

Here, we review the benefits of low-temperature pulsed plasma technology on the synthesis of amorphous and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films, and carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. Physical and chemical vapour depositions of strong carbon materials are dominated in industry by magnetron sputtering and vacuum arc. At research stage, carbon deposition can be accomplished by many techniques involving pulsed discharges in vacuum or atmospheric pressure. Either by pulsed-DC glow discharge, high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA), or anodic arc discharge, the structural and mechanical properties of carbon-based samples can be tailored by adequately adjusting “plasma knobs”, namely peak power, pulse duration, and duty cycle. Milestones such as tuning surface properties via ion bombardment, enhancing plasma ionisation through energetic pulses, and stabilization of plasma processes for industrial implementation, are discussed. Also, pulsed plasma technology arises as an excellent laboratory to train machine learning algorithms thanks to the large variety of material properties. In conclusion, nonequilibrium plasmas operated with pulsed power provide exciting opportunities for (1) fabrication of new carbon architectures with desired functional properties for many applications, and (2) advancing our knowledge on carbon plasma chemistry via artificial intelligence resources.