INVESTIGATION OF CARBON NITRIDE FILMS BY CATHODIC ARC EVAPORATION

Presently there is great interest in deposition of the beta-phase C3N4 because its predicted hardness and moduli exceed those of diamond. Th e use of energetic particle beam methods have shown promise in terms o f nitrogen incorporation. Energetic and highly ionized beams from cath odic arcs have also proven to be effective in deposition of tetrahedra l amorphous carbon (ta-C). In this paper we report on C-N films deposi ted using a carbon are in nitrogen atmosphere. Films with nitrogen con centration ranging from 17-32% were deposited as a function of nitroge n pressure and substrate temperature. CNx films deposited above room t emperature and 1 mTorr (0.013 Pa) of N-2 were found to have low stress , indicating the presence of mostly sp(2) bonding.