Mechanical and vibrational properties of carbon nitride alloys

Abstract

A study of ultraviolet and visible Raman spectroscopy was made in amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:Nx) and amorphous hydrogenated carbon nitride (a-C:Nx:H) thin films. Two growth techniques were used: 1) glow discharge was used for depositing hydrogenated films with diamond-like (at -200V of bias) and graphite-like (-800V of bias) structure and 2) ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) to deposit non-hydrogenated films and to obtain high nitrogen concentrations (∼30%). The difference in energy between the visible and UV Raman, the so called G dispersion parameter, was investigated for both series of films. This parameter brings additional information concerning the structure of the films regarding size and concentration of graphitic clusters, and qualitative information on the sp2sp3 concentration. The characterization of the structural properties in these films indicates an increase of graphite clusters with the incorporation of nitrogen.