Abstract
Laser-arc evaporation of a graphite target has been used to deposit carbon films that exhibit high hardness (45 GPa) and elastic recovery (85%). High-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) were subsequently used to study the microstructure and bonding of the resultant layers. The structure of the films from HREM is seen to consist of a dense array of parallel curved graphene sheet segments packed in various orientations. EELS reveals that the films are comprised of mainly -bonded carbon. The results suggest that a form of carbon thin film with fullerenelike structure can be realized. In order to explain how a predominantly -bonded material can exhibit such a high hardness, a simple model is proposed to correlate the excellent mechanical properties with the observed structure.
- Received 4 February 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.10903
©1999 American Physical Society