Carbon onions thin film formation and characterization

Spherical carbon onions (10-20 nm in size) have been synthesized by high-fluence (3.10(17) Cm-2) 120 keV carbon-ion implantation in silver substrates heated at 500 degrees C. We report Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) observations obtained from these carbon clusters. Atomic Force Microscopy images of the implanted surface assess the formation of a high density of spherical carbon onions. The implantation process used here can become a powerful technique to synthesize thin films constituted of large quantities of carbon onions and thus opens new opportunities to study their unknown properties.