Characteristics of nitrogen doped diamond-like carbon films prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering for electronic devices

Synthetic diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a carbon-based material used mainly in cutting tool coatings and as an abrasive material. The market for DLC has expanded into electronics, optics, and acoustics because of its distinct electrical and optical properties. In this work, n-doped DLC (N:DLC) films were deposited on p-type silicon substrates using an unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) method. We investigated the effect of the working pressure on the microstructure and electrical properties of n-doped DLC films. The structural properties of N:DLC films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy and SEM-EDX, and the electrical properties of films were investigated by observing the changes in the resistivity and current-voltage (I-V) properties. The N:DLC films prepared by UBMS in this study demonstrated good conducting and physical properties with n-doping.