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The plasma of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) has been used for technical applications starting with ozone generation by Siemens 1857. Non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges are of considerable interest because the industrial application requires no vacuum devices. In recent years, the use of the DBD for surface treatment has been reported, e.g. for the treatment of foils to improve printability, for surface cleaning and thin film deposition1, 2. The DBD is known as a strongly inhomogeneous, filamentary discharge. A non filamentary, homogeneous DBD was observed in He, other gases, and mixtures. This type is called atmospheric pressure glow (APG) discharge and is of importance for surface treatments. In this contribution, hexamethyldisiloxane ((CH3)3SiOSi(CH3)3, HMDSO), diluted in He as carrier gas, is used as precursor for the deposition of thin films by plasma polymerization in an APG. The static deposition profiles are measured and compared with results of a model which includes monomer activation and thin film growth.

The RF generated anisothermal low pressure plasma is widely used in plasma technology for thin film deposition, etching and surface treatment. For plasma polymerization, the silicon organic compound hexamethyldisiloxane (CH3)3-Si-O-Si-(CH3)3 (HMDSO) plays an important role in the field of surface protection, optics, electronics and biomedicine1.