X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of the atomic structure change of amorphous carbon films annealed in vacuum

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inLight-induced changes in an alkali metal atomic vapor cell coating studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy Amorphous carbon films deposited at near room temperature on Si substrates by a direct current plasma chemical vapor deposition technique using CH 4 gas have been annealed in vacuum. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that, as the annealing temperature increases from room temperature to 300 °C, a significant shift (0.5 eV) of the C Is electron binding energy is observed. The observed shift may be the indication of an atomic structure change of the amorphous films upon the thermal annealing. On the other hand, a large shift in the Sp2 bond peaks of the Raman spectra only occurs at annealing temperatures higher than 300 °C, which may be the indication of a structural change of the amorphous carbon films by the annealing. A two stage stress release mechanism is suggested: One for the atomic structure change and one for the film structure change.