Deposition of Carbon Film and its Characterization by Raman Spectroscopy

^a*Tahir Iqbal, ^bMuhammad Sajjad, ^aMuhammd Imran, , ^cMehboob Sadiq and ^bMuhammad Zakaullah

^a Department of Physics, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan.

^bDepartment of Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.

^cNational Tokamak Fusion Programme, PO Box 3329, Islamabad, Pakistan.

*Email: tahiriqbal_aries@yahoo.com   

ABSTRACT

The deposition of amorphous carbon films is made on Silicon substrates, using a low energy (1.4 kJ) dense plasma focus. The silicon substrates are placed in front of the graphite inserted anode at 5 cm distance for different angular positions (0^o, 8^o and 12^o) with respect to the anode axis. The films are deposited using 25 focus shots at an optimum pressure of 0.75 mbar, by using argon as working gas. The structural information of the deposited films is obtained by using Raman Spectroscopy at room temperature with 785 nm line of a solid-state diode laser at an operating power of 100 mW. The analyses show the deposition of both graphite-type trigonal sp² and diamond-type tetragonal sp³ films. The surface morphology is studied by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The irradiation by energetic high fluence ions results in surface swelling of the substrate increasing its roughness. With higher fluence, the surface damage is significant as a consequence of the excessive energy deposited on the substrate.

Keywords: Deposition, Diamond like carbon, dense plasma focus, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy.

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^*Corresponding author Contact: Full Name; Tahir Iqbal, Address; University of Gujart, Gujrat, Pakistan, Telephone: 0092-300-5242398,