Patent ID: 8573149

Claim:
An apparatus for depositing a tetrahedral amorphous carbon thin film for a magnetic recording medium, comprising: a film deposition chamber; a plasma beam formation portion connected to the film deposition chamber for supplying a plasma beam to the film deposition chamber to form the tetrahedral amorphous carbon thin film on a substrate with a magnetic recording layer thereon; a substrate holder rotatably arranged in the film deposition chamber for removably holding the substrate; a tilting member for continuously changing an inclination angle formed by a normal line to a surface of the magnetic recording layer of the substrate and a plane orthogonal to a direction of incidence of the plasma beam; a rotating member for rotating the substrate about a rotation axis of the substrate holder; and a control member for rotating the substrate holder with the substrate thereon and operating the tilting member to continuously change the inclination angle from a minimum inclination angle to a maximum inclination angle according to an increase in film thickness of the tetrahedral amorphous carbon thin film being formed by the plasma beam formation portion, wherein the minimum inclination angle is more than 0° and less than 10°, and the maximum inclination angle is less than 80°.