Nanocrystalline C=N thin films

This paper discusses phase composition as well as electrical and optical properties of carbon-nitrogen (CN) compound obtained by reactive pulse plasma method. It is shown that material produced in such a way is a mixture of an amorphous compound which we have called polycyanoimine and nanocrystalline diamond. Its electrical and optical properties differ from those of DLC obtained by the same method. During electrical measurements there have not been observed diode-like current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, what rules out the possibility that nitrogen atoms might act as a dopant in obtained material. It has been found that electrical resistivity of investigated films, as ranging from 10(9) to 10(11) Omega cm, has been higher than that of DLC layers produced from pulse plasma. However, subsequent low temperature (350 degrees C) annealing has resulted in the drop of their resistivity to the value of 10(6)-10(7) Omega cm, the same as for DLC materials. Annealing has also influenced refractive index of investigated layers resulting in its increase from 1.9 to 2.13. Moreover, it has been observed that CN layers produced under the highest nitrogen pressure (i.e. 60 Pa) have been luminescent when illuminated with 514.5 nm laser beam, which does not occur in the case of DLC.