The study of the microscopic scale structure of carbon-based materials: a comparison between Auger-derived density of states structures and moleculardynamics simulations

Valence band features of graphite, diamond and amorphous carbon of density rho =2.2 g/cm(3) have been identified from the analysis of the double-deriv ative of the carbon KVV Auger lines. Comparison with available experimental data, theoretical data and molecular dynamics calculations has shown that double-differentiated Auger data can be useful for the understanding of the density of states (DOS) of carbon-based materials. Results show that the i nterpretation of the second derivative Auger structures using atomic-scale simulations can also be used to extract some information on the microscopic structure of the considered amorphous carbon samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.