Synchrotron-based NEXAFS analysis of thermal-treated diamond-like carbon films

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) film properties are known to vary with important factors such as the ratio of sp³ to sp² hybridization, film thickness, and contaminations. In this work, the carbon bonding contents in DLC thin films, thermal-treated with various temperatures between room temperature to 250 °C, were studies by near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. From NEXAFS measurements, the sp³/sp² ratios of DLC films were found to be unaffected by the thermal treatments. The results indicate that thermal treatment below 250 °C does not affect the carbon bonding contents in DLC thin film.