Structural investigation of nanocrystalline diamond/amorphous carbon composite films

Abstract Nanocrystalline diamond/amorphous carbon (NCD/a-C) composite films have been prepared by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MWCVD) from methane/nitrogen mixtures. The complex nature of the coatings required the application of a variety of complementary analytical techniques in order to elucidate their structure. The crystallinity of the samples was studied by selected-area electron diffraction (SAED). The diffraction patterns revealed the presence of diamond crystallites within the films. From the images taken by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) the crystallite size was determined to be on the order of 3–5 nm. The results were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements exhibiting broad (111) and (220) peaks of diamond from which the average size of the crystallites was calculated. The grain boundary width is 1–1.5 nm as observed by TEM images which corresponds to a matrix volume fraction of about 40–50%. This correlates very well with the crystalline phase content of about 50% in the films estimated from their density (2.75 g/cm 3 as determined by X-ray reflectivity). The bonding structure of the composite films was studied by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the region of carbon core level. The spectra were dominated by a peak at 292 eV indicating the diamond nature of the investigated films. In addition, the spectra of NCD/a-C films possessed a shoulder at 284 eV due to the presence of a small sp 2 bonded fraction. This phase was identified also by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The sp 2 /sp 3 ratio was on the order of 10% as determined by deconvolution of the C1s XPS peak.