Electrical, structural and optical properties of amorphous carbon

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Abstract

The planar and transverse electrical resistivity of amorphous carbon (a-C) films getter-sputtered at low temperature (77–95 K) is well-fitted by the expression ϱ = ϱ0exp(T0/T)14 The exponent T0 being approximately the same in both cases (≈ 7 × 107 K) suggests that the amorphous films are isotropic. Films thinner than 600 Å display a two-dimensional hopping conductivity from which one deduces a density of states N(EF) at the Fermi level of 1018 eV−1 cm−3 and a radius of the localized wave functions (a) of 12 Å. Tunneling experiments and optical absorption measurements are consistent with a pseudogap of approximately 0.8 eV. Electron diffraction experiments indicate that a-C films consist of a mixture of diamond and graphite bonds; this fact taken in the light of the other experiments would suggest that the graphite bonds act as the localized conduction states.

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