Highly preferred crystalline carbon thin films obtained by DC magnetron sputtering with a hot filament

Highly preferred crystalline carbon thin films were obtained easily at relatively low substrate temperatures using a newly developed DC magnetron sputtering system with a hot filament. The crystal structure of the carbon films was investigated by X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM and TED analysis. X-ray diffraction analysis of the films prepared at substrate temperatures from 600 to 700°C and with the filament temperature up to 2000°C revealed very strong diffraction peaks at 2θ = 40.22° corresponding to chaoite (220) which are identical to that of carbyne, one of the carbon allotropes. FE-SEM images showed that a great number of microcrystallites of about 60 nm diameter exist on the surface of the film. TED patterns showed a (220) preferred orientation which coincided with the X-ray results.