Verification study of nanostructure evolution with heating treatment between thin and thick fullerene-like hydrogen carbon films

Abstract

Fullerene-like hydrogen carbon films with a thin film grown on a NaCl substrate are usually employed to show the nanostructure of films (usually of hundred nanometers thick grown on Si substrates) under high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) tests because it is easier floated off, where dependability and reasonability has never been seriously contested. Thus, in this paper, thin and thick hydrogen carbon films have been deposited on NaCl (thin films) and Si (thick films) substrates and annealed under room temperature to 500 °C, of which nanostructures have been investigated by HRTEM, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, to verify the dependability and reasonability of the NaCl method. The results showed heating induced graphitization but with hydrogen content nearly unchanged. HRTEM results revealed that under annealing of 200, 250, and 300 °C, the curved graphene structures gradually increase in films. However, beyond 400 °C, onions structures are present. However, both Raman and XPS spectra show us that after annealed treatment, for original films, both thin and thick films have the near sp2 bonding content and size, but with the annealing temperature increase, sp2 bonding content increases more quickly for thick FL-C:H films due to the higher internal stress compared to thin films. In one word, the NaCl method used for nanostructure detection for films might be a good choice for an easier and quicker analysis, but it is still insufficient, because the heating effect induced by plasma cannot be ignored.