The Effect of the Ion Assistance Energy on the Electrical Resistivity of Carbon Films Prepared by Pulsed Plasma Deposition in a Nitrogen Atmosphere

The effect of vacuum annealing on the structure and properties of the electrically conductive a-CN coating

“…In conclusion, we note that the electrical resistivity of our a-CN coatings (ρ = 2.5 Ω cm at T = 300 K) is 4 times lower than that of analogs [5,11], also obtained by cathodic vacuum-arc sputtering of graphite with simultaneous irradiation with nitrogen ions of the growing film. Subsequent annealing in vacuum at 600 • C makes it possible to reduce the electrical resistivity to 0.05 Ω cm, which is commensurate with the resistance of nanocrystalline graphite films to ~0.03 Ω cm [12].…”

“…Tetrahedral amorphous carbon films (ta-C), in which carbon atoms with sp 3 hybridization predominate, are dielectrics with a resistivity of 10 7 -10 9 Ω cm at room temperature [5,6]. One of the most common ways to increase the electrical conductivity of ta-C is the introduction of nitrogen into their structure [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. There are three main ways of introducing nitrogen into the carbon structure: inlet of molecular nitrogen N 2 into the vacuum chamber during the deposition process [6,[8][9][10];deposition of a carbon coating with simultaneous irradiation with nitrogen ions [5,7,11]; -implantation of nitrogen ions into deposited carbon films [4].…”

“…Graphite-like films obtained by magnetron sputtering at a substrate temperature of 620 • C have a resistivity of ~0.03 Ω cm, and the average sp 2 crystallite size is 7.2 nm [12]. Given these temperature limitations, one of the most suitable methods for the deposition of a-CN coatings is pulsed vacuum-arc sputtering of graphite [7,10,11]. This method allows to obtain coatings of the required thickness by setting the desired number of pulses, to dose the thermal load on the substrate by changing the pulse repetition rate and does not require the application of an accelerating potential to the substrate.…”