Abstract
The change in the structure of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films by nitrogen incorporation is studied by near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). NEXAFS spectroscopy can be used to determine the molecular structure of amorphous nitrogenated carbon (a-CN x ) films due to its superior energy resolution as compared to EELS. This shows the structure of the films to be close to pyridine. The N K-edge spectra obtained from these spectroscopic techniques are decomposed into several peaks in order to compare the film structure after nitrogen incorporation. A comparative and combined study of NEXAFS spectroscopy and EELS reveals that as the nitrogen concentration in the films increases, the peaks π* and σ* at the C K-edge move towards higher energy and the π*/σ* intensity ratio at both edges decreases. These results indicate that there is an increase in the concentration of CC and CN relative to CC and CN bonds with nitrogen concentration, respectively. The difficulty of nitrogen doping of ta-C is also interpreted from the ratio of π* and σ* at C and N K-edges.
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