RBS, ERDA and NR analyses of hard amorphous nitrogen-incorporated carbon films

Abstract

Complementary nuclear techniques — Rutherford backscattering, elastic recoil and nuclear reaction analyses — were used to characterize amorphous nitrogen-incorporated carbon films (a-C : H(N)) prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Several deposition parameters, namely bias voltage Vb, nitrogen partial pressure PN, and total pressure P, were varied in a controlled way. The measured elemental composition is correlated with the Vickers hardness and internal stress of the film obtained from the substrate-bending method. Nitrogen incorporation reduces the internal stress without a substantial modification of the film hardness. The effect of nitrogen implantation on those films was also studied: hydrogen depletion was measured by ERDA and nitrogen loss by NR.