Synthesis and characterization of thin amorphous carbon films doped with nitrogen on (001) Si substrates

We synthesized undoped as well as up to 6 at.% nitrogen (N) doped thin amorphous carbon (α-C) films by plasma- enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method. The source of carbon/carbon containing radicals was benzene (C6H6) in Ar gas- mixture. The obtained thin films were studied by optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, UV-VIS- NIR Spectral Ellipsometry, IR and Raman spectroscopic studies as well as by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies (XPS). We established by XPS that the deposited layers consist of a mix of sp2 and sp3 hybridized carbon. The films are amorphous as it was shown by the measured XRD patterns. The ellipsometric measurements enabled calculation of transition energies and the complex results showed that films with thickness of 15- 120 nm and different properties can be obtained by this technique.