The use of diamond-tipped scanning tunneling microscope to study structural features of ta-C film

A physicomathematical modeling of the surface of a diamond-like carbon (ta-C) film is performed for the sp2/sp3 phase transition region, and results of scanning tunneling microscopic examination using a boron-doped single-crystal semiconductor diamond tip are provided. It is demonstrated that the height difference in the sp2/sp3 interface layer is not related to functional features of the tunneling microscope. A fractal analysis of the surface, contour, and profile of the section has been carried out by three independent methods; and the findings confirm that the surface belongs to the category of fractal Browning surfaces. It is shown that the real surface area under study can greatly exceed the area of the visible contact window.