Pulsed laser deposition of glass-like cluster assembled carbon films

Carbon films have been synthesized at room temperature in helium atmosphere, at high pressure, on (1 0 0) Si substrates by pulsed KrF excimer laser ablation of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite. By changing laser power density (from 8.5 to 19 MW mm−2) and gas pressure (from 0.6 Pa to 2 kPa), nanometer sized cluster assembled films were obtained. Film morphology, as studied by scanning electron microscopy, changes with increasing helium pressure, from dense columns, to node-like morphology, then to an open dendritic structure. Carbon coordination was studied by visible Raman spectroscopy in all films. They are structurally disordered, sp2 coordinated and belong to the family of glass-like carbons. The deduced film coherence length agrees with the average size of carbon aggregates that build up the films, as measured by transmission electron microscopy in representative samples. The average number of carbon atoms per cluster, that depends on helium (high) pressure, was obtained by a simple model.