Carbon nitride films prepared by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition from a solid carbon source

Thin carbon nitride films have been prepared by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition (ICP-CVD). Instead of using conventional gaseous carbon precursors, a pure carbon mesh was used as a carbon source with nitrogen as a transport gas. The basic process parameters varied were the r.f. power (up to 100 W) and the pressure in the reactor. The films were composed of nitrogen and carbon as revealed by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray excited photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and heavy ion elastic recoil detection (ERD) analysis, and their nitrogen fraction N/(N+C) was at about 0.5, independent on the experimental conditions. From Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and XPS data it can be concluded that carbon atoms were bonded in different ways (by triple, double and single bonds) to nitrogen atoms.