Effect of electron irradiation on morphological, compositional and electrical properties of nanocluster carbon thin films grown using room temperature based cathodic arc process for large area microelectronics

The influence of 8 MeV electron beam bombardment on room temperature grown nanocluster carbon using cathodic arc process has been studied here. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) study shows that surface roughness varies with varying electron doses. High doses of electrons could causes thermal induce graphitization and morphological changes in the films. Raman spectroscopy analysis reveals that G-peak vary from 1555 cm^-1 to 1570 cm^-1 and D-peak varying from 1361 cm^-1 to 1365 cm^-1 indicating the disorderness and presence of both graphitic and diamond-like phases. Room temperature conductivity changes by two to three orders in magnitude. The conductivity in the films could be due to conduction of charge carriers through neighboring islands of conductive chains. Defect states calculated using the differential technique varies from 8 × 10¹⁷cm^-3 eV^-1 to 1.5 × 10¹⁹ cm^-3 eV^-1. Irradiation of nanocluster carbon thin films could be helpful to tune the electrical properties and defect densities of the nanocluster carbon films for various large area, flexible electronic and nano electronic applications.