The physics of plasma polymer deposition

In recent years the deposition of plasma polymers has received increasing interest and plasma polymers have been recognized as a new class of materials with specific qualities. We discuss several discharge arrangements and relate the plasma parameters with estimates of the fluxes. Concluding it can be said that a plasma polymerization process is a very complicated system. First characterization by electron density together with a physical picture can give guidelines to improve the effectivity of the polymerization process. For a full picture also the chemical nature of the process must be recognized, in particular at the adsorbed layer on top of the growing polymer layer. Full diagnosis is possible but requires detailed studies with elaborate techniques.