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Bilayer amorphous carbon films synthesized by filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2016

Jun Xie  and
Kyriakos Komvopoulos
Jun Xie
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Kyriakos Komvopoulos*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: kyriakos@me.berkeley.edu
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Abstract

A bilayer film deposition process for synthesizing ultrathin amorphous carbon (a-C) films with structure and properties dominated by those of the sp3-rich bulk layer was developed in this study. This was accomplished by incorporating in conventional filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) deposition a low-ion-energy pre-deposition step (no substrate biasing) leading to the formation of an ultrathin (<1 nm) carbon layer and a post-deposition step of high-energy Ar+ ion sputtering resulting in film thinning. The thickness and cross-sectional structure of hydrogen-free a-C ultrathin films synthesized by this multistep FCVA process under optimum substrate bias conditions (−100 V pulsed bias voltage) were examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The bilayer a-C films synthesized under these conditions exhibit slightly higher sp3 fractions and interface and bulk layers significantly thinner and thicker, respectively, compared with single-layer a-C films of similar thickness deposited under the same FCVA conditions.

Keywords

electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS)filmtransmission electron microscopy (TEM)
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 31 , Issue 20 , 28 October 2016 , pp. 3161 - 3167
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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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