Modification of graphene-like, hydrogenated amorphous, hydrogenated tetrahedral amorphous carbon and amorphous carbon thin films by UV-C light

Abstract

The study aims to explore the effect of low fluence UV-C radiation on the structural quality of thin carbon films. We have modified single to few-layered nano-sized graphene-like films deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on ~300 nm SiO2/Si substrates and additionally different hydrogenated amorphous carbon a-C:H, tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:H) and amorphous carbon (a-C) thin carbon films. The modification was carried out by irradiation of the samples with UV-C lamps (Hg lamps λ= 254 nm wavelength and fluence of about 2 × 10−3 W/cm−2) for 5- 30 min in air-atmosphere for graphene-like and up to 60 min for thin carbon films. The irradiated graphene-like films were oriented either at about 2 arcdeg to the impinging light, i.e. the light was almost parallel to the honey-comb plane of graphene film or perpendicular to the UV-C light. The thin carbon films were treated only by a light directed perpendicularly to the films' surface for 60 min. Films were studied before and right after UV-C modification by ellipsometry or profilometry, X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopies to clarify the influence of the UV-C treatment. The most pronounced influence of the UV-C irradiation on the structural quality of the films was established on a-C:H and ta-C:H films where the sp3 and the oxygen-containing radicals content decrease moderately and drops significantly, respectively. The influence of the UV-C irradiation directed almost parallel to the films’ surface on the structural quality of the graphene-like films was slightly higher than that directed perpendicularly. No significant influence on the quality of a-C films synthesized or a-C:H films annealed at high temperatures (1020–1050) °C was observed.