Abstract

The effect of nitrogen addition and laser fluence on the atomic structure of amorphous carbon films (a-C) synthesized by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition has been studied. The chemical bonding in the films was investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron (XPS) and Raman spectroscopies. XPS studies revealed a decrease in the sp3 bonded carbon sites and an associated increase in the N-sp2C bonding sites with increasing nitrogen content in the CNx films. An increase in laser fluence from 0.36 to 1.7 J/cm2 led to a rise in sp3C sites. These results were further confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The ID/IG ratio increased monotonically and G line-width decreased with the increase of nitrogen content in the films indicating a rise in either the number or the size of the sp2 clusters. Furthermore a visible excitation wavelength dependence study established the resonant Raman process in a-C and CNx films. Copyright Springer 2004