Electronic structure and bonding properties of $Si$-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films Available to Purchase

This work investigates the $C$ $K$-edge x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), valence-band photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of $Si$-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films. The $C$ $K$-edge XANES and valence-band PES spectra indicate that the $sp2∕sp3$ population ratio decreases as the amount of tetramethylsilane vapor precursor increases during deposition, which suggest that $Si$ doping% enhances $sp3$ and reduces $sp2$-bonding configurations. FTIR spectra show the formation of a polymeric $sp3$ $C–Hn$ structure and $Si–Hn$ bonds, which causes the Young’s modulus and hardness of the films to decrease with the increase of the $Si$ content.