Preparation and Properties of Amorphous Carbon and Hydrocarbon Films

The paper deals with amorphous carbonaceous films deposited by different ion and/or plasma assisted methods (cathodic arc evaporation, ion plating, and magnetron sputtering), which show remarkable differences in density, composition and energetic state of the particle fluxes arriving at the substrate surface. The structure of the layers was characterized by electron energy loss spectroscopy, high energy electron diffraction, RAMAN spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. Moreover, hardness and mass density of the layers are measured. The three deposition methods are compared with regard to their growth conditions yielding a specific layer structure.