Effect of intrinsic growth stress on the Raman spectra of vacuum-arc-deposited amorphous carbon films

Abstract

Amorphous carbon (a-C) films grown by vacuum-arc deposition techniques contain substantial amounts of compressive, residual, growth stress (over 10 GPa). The magnitude of the stress can be controlled by changing the incoming energy of the ions. It is observed that stress shifts the Raman scattering feature in these films to higher frequency by as much as 20 cm-1. The Raman spectra of adhering and delaminated films are used to measure the magnitude of the stress-induced shift, which is -1.9 cm-1/GPa for compressive biaxial stress. The observed value is compared to that expected from disordered diamond and graphite structures.© 1995 American Institute of Physics.