Optical and structural properties of nitrogen incorporated Ni doped Diamond-like Carbon thin films

Abstract

Co-depositing of nickel (Ni) and nitrogen (N2) in the diamond-like carbon (DLC) matrix was synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. In the work presented here, N2 was injected as a reactive gas to optimize the optical, and structural properties of Ni:N-DLC thin films, although N2 to argon (Ar) gas ratio was kept constant. Statistical properties of thin films were calculated from the surface topographic images of 2Ni:N-DLC, 3Ni:N-DLC, and 4Ni-N-DLC samples. The characterization of samples have been carried out by by atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Band gap energies of 2Ni:N-DLC, 3Ni:N-DLC and 4Ni:N-DLC have been illustrated that the background N2 gas can be used for optimization of the electrical properties of Ni-DLC thin films.