Al-induced fullerene-like nanostructures in C-Al-N thin films

Y. F. Han; T. Fu; Y. G. Shen

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2009.08.042

Al-induced fullerene-like nanostructures in C-Al-N thin films

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews (RGC: 21, 22, 62) › 21_Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

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2 Scopus Citations

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Author(s)

Y. F. Han
T. Fu
Y. G. Shen

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2479-2482
Journal / Publication	Materials Letters
Volume	63
Issue number	28
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2009

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2009.08.042 Final Published version
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Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-70349232187&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(077eb2f0-4f78-4d82-aa32-7a26292185e6).html

Abstract

The role of aluminium incorporated into growing carbon nitride (CN_x) films prepared by reactive dc-magnetron sputtering was investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). XPS analyses revealed the formation of Al-N bonding besides C-C and C-N bonds. With increasing Al concentrations above 11.8 at.%, a structural transformation from essentially amorphous (a-) (CN_x, AlN) phase to locally ordered microstructure comprising of fullerene-like (FL-) CN_x nanostructures surrounded by a-(CN_x, AlN) matrices was evidenced by Raman and HRTEM. The effect of aluminium in triggering FL-CN_x nanostructures was elucidated from thermodynamic considerations. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.