Investigation on the Microstructure of Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Films by Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy

Structure characterization of the hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films prepared by plasma CVD has been carried out by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). The EELS data are successfully resolved to the bulk contributions and the surface ones by using the curve fitting. The EELS spectra are discussed on the basis of the energy-loss function of graphite. The annealing may cause the increase in number of small linear or chainlike clusters of fused sixfold carbon rings rather than growth of their compact clusters.