Surface Structure of Tetrahedral-Coordinated Amorphous Diamond-Like Carbon Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

T. W. Mercer, N. J. DiNardo, L. J. Martinez-Miranda, F. Fang, T. A. Friedmann, J. P. Sullivan, M. P. Siegal
1994 Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings  
The structure and composition of tetrahedral-coordinated amorphous diamondlike carbon films (a-tC) grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of graphite has been studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The nanometer-scale surface structure has been studied as a function of growth parameters (e.g., laser energy density and film thickness) using contact-mode and tapping-mode AFM. Although the surfaces were found to be generally smooth, they exhibited reproducible structural features on several
more » ... ze scales which correlate with the variation of laser energy and the effects of excited ion etching.
doi:10.1557/proc-358-863 fatcat:beej6jgox5blvcimo3jn5kw5t4