Preparation and thermal stability of Fe-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films

Fe-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H:Fe) films were deposited from T2B/ferrocene/H2 gas mixtures by plasma enhanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition(PEMOCVD). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) was used to probe the composition of deposited a-C:H:Fe films. Deposition rate, surface topography, thermal stability and optical gap were also measured by surface profiler, FESEM, thermal gravity analysis and UV-visible spectroscopy. The investigation results show that the deposition rate of the a-C:H:Fe films is rapider, and the surface grains are smaller than that of the a-C:H films. The a-C:H:Fe films are carbonized more easily than the a-C:H films, as their Tauc optical gap becomes 0.3 eV narrower than that of the a-C:H films.