Deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films with enhanced sp3-C bonding on nanocrystalline palladium interlayer

The present study deals with the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films on Si (100) substrates with and without an interlayer of nanocrystalline palladium (nc-Pd) on them, by high-voltage electro-dissociation of N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF). Significant improvement in the sp3 carbon content has been observed for a-C:H films grown on nc-Pd interlayer as revealed by Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopic techniques. It is inferred that H2 activation on palladium sites leads to the stabilization of sp3-C bonding, thereby improving the quality of the deposits grown on them.