Properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon deposited by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc

The properties of a highly sp(3) bonded form of amorphous carbon denoted ta-C deposited from a filtered cathodic vacuum are (FCVA) are described as a function of ion energy and deposition temperature. The sp(3) fraction depends strongly on ion energy and reaches 85% at an ion energy of 100 eV. Other properties such as density and band gap vary in a similar fashion, with the optical gap reaching a maximum of 2.3 eV. These films are very smooth with area roughness of order 1 nm. The sp(3) fraction falls suddenly to almost zero for deposition above about 200 degrees C.