Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Over the past several years, numerous new materials have been prepared by the glow discharge decomposition of gaseous species.Among these, a material with extraordinary though as yet unfulfilled potential is hydrogenated amorphous carbon(a-C:H).As a metastable state between the two naturally occurring carbons, graphite and diamond, a-C:H can display a wide range of phyical characteristics.Film optical and electronic properties are a strong function of deposition parameters, where 2.l>Eopt >0.9eV.and 1016 >ρ>106Ω-cm., for films deposited between 75 and 375C.Occasionally referred to as “diamond-like”, such films can be extraordinarily hard and virtually impervious to chemical attack.The interrelation of film structure on the atomic level and macroscopic film properties will be discussed, with emphasis on the current controversy over whether such material is indeed diamond-like in its microscopic ordering.