Patent ID: 7867578

Claim:
A method of forming an amorphous carbon layer on a substrate, comprising: positioning a substrate in a substrate processing chamber; introducing a hydrocarbon source into the processing chamber; introducing a noble gas from the group consisting of argon, krypton, xenon, and combinations thereof into the processing chamber, wherein the molar flow rate of the noble gas is greater than the molar flow rate of the hydrocarbon source; generating a plasma in the processing chamber; forming an amorphous carbon layer on the substrate; stopping the flow of the hydrocarbon source into the processing chamber while flowing a plasma-maintaining gas into the processing chamber to maintain a plasma therein; and introducing a hydrogen gas into the processing chamber with the plasma-maintaining gas after the stopping the flow of the hydrocarbon source into the processing chamber, wherein the ratio of the molar flow rate of the plasma-maintaining gas to the molar flow rate of the hydrogen gas is between about 1:1 to about 3:1.