Compositional, Morphological and Optical Properties of Nanocluster Carbon Thin Films

Nanocarbon thin films in its many facets are increasingly becoming a material of interest for nanoelectronics and microelectronics applications. Room temperature grown nanocluster carbon (NC) thin films, could be one of the interesting and novel material for micro/nano, large area and flexible microelectronics applications. Nanocluster carbon thin films are unique in terms of its morphology, varying from smooth to cluster of various dimensions and even fibrous in nature [87]. The films are a mixed phased material containing both sp 2 and sp 3 bonded carbon and the computation of this bonds ratio can be varied by varying the deposition parameters. There are only limited reports on the electrical properties of the nanocluster carbon thin films [87]. To check the feasibility of nanocluster carbon films grown using Cathodic arc for electronic application, a random set of samples, grown under a broad range of process parameters have been considered. In this chapter, it is proposed to discuss the morphological, compositional and optical properties of the nanocluster carbon thin films grown under varying process parameters such as arc current, deposition ion energy, throw distance, and growth environment in terms of partial pressures of the constituent gases like helium, nitrogen and hydrogen. Possible correlation between above mentioned properties and electrical properties will be discussed in the succeeding chapters. Thus try to gain an insight into the electronic transport mechanisms in the case nanocluster carbon films.