The effect of vacuum annealing on the structure and properties of the electrically conductive a-CN coating

Electrically conductive amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN) coatings were deposited onto various substrates by pulsed vacuum-arc sputtering of a graphite cathode with simultaneous irradiation the substrate nitrogen ions. Deposition temperature was less than 60 °C. We investigated effect vacuum annealing at 600°С on elemental composition, structure, electrical and optical properties obtained films. It found that composition coating practically does not change over thickness after annealing, while remaining characteristics significantly. Of particular interest is correlation between in nanostructure coating. An explanation mechanisms for changing proposed.