Nitrogen doping and structural properties of amorphous carbon films deposited by pulsed laser ablation

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) was successfully introduced into amorphous carbon (a-C) films by ablating carbon (C) from a camphoric carbon (CC) target with varying ambient N partial pressure (NPP) using pulsed laser ablation (PLA). We found that the N content in the film changed on varying the NPP. The room temperature conductivity ( σ RT) decreases initially at 0.1 mTorr and then increases at higher NPP up to 30 mTorr and decreases thereafter. We can relate this variation to doping of N in the films for low N content as the optical gap ( E g) remains unchanged till the film is deposited at 1 mTorr. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy studies also suggest that no graphitization whatsoever occurs in the film after N addition up to 1 mTorr. Although no structural change in the films was found with N addition up to 1 mTorr, the σ RT depends on the N content. With higher NPP up to 30 mTorr, since E g decreases with increasing σ RT, we related this phenomenon to the graphitization. However, above 30 mTorr, since E g increases with the decrease of σ RT, we related this phenomenon to the structural change in the film.