Temperature Dependence on Structural, Tribological, and Electrical Properties of Sputtered Conductive Carbon Thin Films

Abstract

Conductive carbon films were prepared at room temperature by unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) on silicon substrates using argon (Ar) gas, and the effects of post-annealing temperature on the structural, tribological, and electrical properties of carbon films were investigated. Films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 700 °C in increments of 100 °C using a rapid thermal annealing method by vacuum furnace in vacuum ambient. The increase of annealing temperature contributed to the increase of the ordering and formation of aromatic rings in the carbon film. Consequently, with increasing annealing temperature the tribological properties of sputtered carbon films are deteriorated while the resistivity of carbon films significantly decreased from 4.5 × 10 −3 to 1.0 × 10 −6 Ω-cm and carrier concentration as well as mobility increased, respectively. This behavior can be explained by the increase of sp 2 bonding fraction and ordering sp 2 clusters in the carbon networks caused by increasing annealing temperature.

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“…In the case of the carbon-coated electrode annealed at 400°C, the J-V curve shows a slightly larger cathodic current than the curve with the same deposition time (60 min). This can be attributed to the reduced resistivity of carbon owing to the carrier mobility increased with increasing annealing temperature as reported previously 28 . Similarly, this approach is also applicable to the Pt case, as depicted in the inset of Simultaneously, it is also possible that the 'pinch-off' effect is responsible for this observation.…”