Raman characteristics of hard carbon-nitride films deposited by reactive ionized cluster beam techniques

Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the effect of nitrogen pressure on the structure of carbon-nitride films deposited by the reactive ionized cluster beam (RICB) technique. It is noted that a peak centered at about 12 48 cm(-1) emerges in the Raman spectra and becomes more pronounced when nit rogen pressure is increased. This peak can be attributed to the covalent N- C single bonds. Moreover, the structure of the deposited films changes from DLC to diamond, and finally to carbon-nitride with the increase of nitroge n pressure. The results of Knoop hardness tests show the films have rather high hardness up to 6200 kg f/mm(2). (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.