In this work we report the measurement of the self-bias voltage of radiofrequency (RF) capacitevely coupled plasma, with a multihollow cathode and methane precursor, used for amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a- C:H) thin film deposition. The plasma is produced in the incident power and pressure ranges between 20 - 300 W and 10 - 100 mTorr, respectively. It was found that the self-bias voltage <i>V<sub>dc</sub></i> is a linear function of the square root of the incident power <i>W<sub>RF</sub></i>. The relationship between the self-bias voltage and gas pressure <i>P</i> is established; this gives an empirical relation for <i>(p/p<sub>0</sub>)<sup>y</sup></i> . From this result, the pressure <i>p<sub>0</sub></i> corresponding to the transition from hollow cathode effect to hollow cathode arc effect is determined.
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