Nitrogen and Boron Doped Diamond Like Carbon Thin Films Synthesis by Electrodeposition from Organic Liquids and Their Characterization

Sunita Kundoo, Satyajit Kar

Department of Physics, Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, Kolkata, India..
Department of Physics, Ramakrishna Mission Sikshanamandira, Belur Math, Howrah, India.

DOI: 10.4236/ampc.2013.31005                

Abstract

Thin films of amorphous diamond like carbon (a:DLC) were deposited by using a novel technique. By electrodeposition from methanol-camphor solution thin a:DLC films were deposited on non-conductive glass substrates and also on high resistive Si substrates, by using a fine wire mesh electrode, at atmospheric pressure and temperature below 350 K. Thin films of a:DLC were doped by incorporation of nitrogen (a:N-DLC) and boron (a:B-DLC) using urea and boric acid with methanol-camphor solution respectively during the electrodeposition process. From transmittance measurements in the UV-VIS-NIR region, the optical energy band gap of about 1.0 eV for undoped a:DLC film, 2.12 eV for a:N-DLC and 2.0 eV for a:B-DLC films were determined. The spectra showed high transparency in the visible and NIR region. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements showed the appearance of various C-H and C-C bonding in the spectrum of undoped amorphous DLC film and confirmed C-N and C=N bond formation in a:N-DLC film. From the temperature variation of d.c. conductivity studies, the activation energies were determined and found to be 0.75 eV, 0.32 eV and 0.58 eV for undoped a:DLC films, a:N-DLC and a:B-DLC films respectively. Electrical resistivity at room temperature was reduced by the doping effect, from 10⁹ Ω-cm for undoped films to 10⁷ Ω-cm for nitrogen doped films and 10⁸ Ω-cm for boron doped films.

Keywords

Non-Crystalline Materials; Thin Films; Infrared Spectroscopy; Electrical Conductivity; Optical Properties

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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