Carbon onions thin film formation and characterization

Abstract

Spherical carbon onions (10-20 nm in size) have been synthesized by high-fluence (3·1017 cm−2) 120 keV carbon-ion implantation in silver substrates heated at 500 °C. We report Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) observations obtained from these carbon clusters. Atomic Force Microscopy images of the implanted surface assess the formation of a high density of spherical carbon onions. The implantation process used here can become a powerful technique to synthesize thin films constituted of large quantities of carbon onions and thus opens new opportunities to study their unknown properties.