Role of ambient gas on laser-ablated plumes for thin carbon film deposition

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Abstract
We report the role of ambient gas on the laser-ablated carbon plume used for carbon-film deposition. An attempt is made to correlate the characteristics of deposited film with the optical emission of various species in the laser-ablated carbon plume. We have deposited thin carbon films on silicon substrate using 0.532 and 0.355-μm laser wavelengths at low fluence in the presence of helium and argon gases. The deposited films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The structure and the surface morphology of the deposited films were found to be strongly dependent on the choice and pressure of the ambient gas. The presence of carbon clusters (fullerenes) in laser-ablated carbon ``soot'' in a helium atmosphere was confirmed by UV-visible and infrared spectroscopy.