Structural peculiarities of amorphous carbon films synthesized in ar atmosphere by ion-plasma method

Abstract

In this work we perform the results of complex study of thin amorphous carbon films, produced by strongly non-equilibrium method of DC magnetron ion-plasma sputtering in Ar atmosphere. In the result of performed atomic force microscopy was revealed that structure and morphology of a-C films’ surface depend on gas pressure, power of plasma discharge and temperature of substrate. The basis of films’ structure is globular formations of 20-100 nm depending on the synthesis conditions. Analysis of obtained films using Raman spectroscopy also shows dependence of local structure, particularly percentage of sp3 hybridized carbon bonds, on synthesis conditions. Using optical spectra of transmission and reflection, energy band gap of carbon films was calculated, and it depends on substrate temperature.