Plasma characterization of pulsed-laser ablation process used for fullerene-like CNx thin film deposition

An in situ Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) characterization was performed on Pulsed-Laser Ablation (PLA) process used for fullerene-like CNx thin film deposition at nitrogen pressures within the 5 - 100 mTorr range. Plumes were generated by ablation of pyrolytic graphite (99.99%) target using a (500 mJ, 7 ns, 1064 nm) Nd: YAG-pulsed laser. The spectra from the plume show, essentially, the presence of the band heads of CN Violet vibrational/rotational B²sigma+ - X²sigma+ system and the characteristic C2 emission lines, belonging to the Swan A³pig - X'3piu system. These excited CN and C2 ...