Pulsed laser deposition of crystalline carbon nitride thin films at high substrate temperature

Abstract

Crystalline carbon nitride thin films are synthesized by pulsed XeCl excimer laser deposition technique following by a high temperature annealing or accompanying a pulsed glow discharge plasma assistance. The composition, the structure and the binding state of the deposited films are analyzed by several techniques such as Scanning electron microscopy, Energy-disperse X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Experiment results show that the crystalline carbon nitride films preferentially formed at high temperature companying with the nitrogen content reduction and the films graphitization, combining high substrate temperature and nitrogen activation through pulsed discharge is favorable for the formation of (alpha) -C<SUB>3</SUB>N<SUB>4</SUB> crystallites.