Amorphous Carbon Nitride Films: Surface and Subsurface Composition and Bonding

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02007
• Publication Date: 2024-08-30T21:08:42Z
• Authors: Josef Zemek; Jana Houdkova; Petr Jiricek; Tomas Kocourek
• Keywords: Carbon fibers; Amorphous carbon; Carbon nitride

To obtain quantitative information about the composition and bonding of atoms located at beyond analyzed solid surface nondestructively, we applied angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy aided by maximum entropy method to air-exposed amorphous carbon nitride films deposited pulsed laser deposition diamond-like modified low-energy nitrogen ion bombardment during film growth. We demonstrate that composition, chemical bonding, mass density vary significantly from top a shallow subsurface region. The samples, in region ∼1 nm, are composed oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, mostly sp