Publications Details
Composition and Bonding in Amorphous Carbon Films Grown by Ion Beam Assisted Deposition: Influence of the Assistance Voltage
Amorphous carbon films have been grown by evaporation of graphite with concurrent Ar+ ions bombardment assistance. The ion energy has been varied between 0-800 V while keeping a constant ion to carbon atom arrival ratio. Film composition and density were determined by ion scattering techniques (RBS and ERDA), indicating a negligible hydrogen content and a density dependence with the assistance voltage. The bonding structure of the films has been studied by Raman and X-ray Absorption Near-Edge (XANES) spectroscopy. Different qualitative effects have been found depending on the ion energy range. For ion energies below 300 eV, there is a densification of the carbon layer due to the increase in the sp3 content. For ion energies above 300 eV sputtering phenomena dominate over densification, and thinner films are found with increasing assistance voltage until no film is grown over 600 V. The films with the highest SP3 content are grown with intermediate energies between 200-300 V.