Nanometer-sized carbon coatings on a silicon wafer: The effect that nitrogen doping level has on specific conductivity and morphology

Nitrogen-doped carbon coatings up to 100 nm thick are obtained on single-crystal silicon wafers with the use of the pulsed vacuum-arc technique with nitrogen gas puffing into a vacuum chamber. The dependence that the specific conductivity has on the nitrogen pressure is investigated. The nitrogen content of the coating and plasmon energy are obtained by the spectroscopy of electron-energy characteristic losses (EECLs). The coating morphology is investigated with scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The dependences that the specific conductivity has on nitrogen pressure and thickness show nonlinear behavior; correlations between the coating morphology, specific conductivity, and plasmon energy are revealed. An explanation for the results is proposed.