Study of the structure of hard graphite-like amorphous carbon films by electron diffraction

Abstract The structure of thin hard carbon films was investigated by transmission electron diffraction using a filter of inelastically scattered electrons. It was shown for the first time that in the amorphous graphite-like carbon films under considerable compressive stress the interplane distance d002 could be shortened down to approximately 0.300 nm. Also, substantiation was given for a simple procedure for the estimation of the first coordination sphere radius in amorphous carbon films. This radius was determined from the maximum of the corresponding diffraction halo. It was shown that this procedure gave the radius of the first coordination sphere very close to its real value for graphite-like structure but did not work so well for a diamond-like structure.