The effect of implantation temperature on the surface hardness, elastic modulus and Raman scattering in amorphous carbon

Abstract

Nitrogen implantation into amorphous carbon has been studied at various implantation temperatures by using 100 keV N+ at 5 μA and fluences of 2×1017 ions/cm2. The apparent surface hardness and elastic modulus from nanoindentation are well correlated with an asymmetric diffuse peak at around 1500 cm−1 and a broad band at ∼700 cm−1 in the Raman spectra. Both the enhanced strengths and Raman characteristics show very weak Arrhenius-type implantation-temperature dependence with activation enthalpies of approximately 20 meV in the temperature range 223−1073 K.