Diamond-like carbon thin films produced by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition of fullerite

Diamond-like carbon films have been deposited from a fullerite target by ultra-short pulsed laser deposition technique. The results indicate that the films morphology and structure, determined by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray diffraction, depend strongly on the substrate temperature. X-ray photoelectron, X-ray Auger electron, Raman and surface enhanced Raman scattering spectra indicate that the fs-DLC films composition involves a mixed sp, sp2 and sp3 carbon network consisting of aromatic rings and sp3 diamond-like structures linked by chains of different lengths and composition. The films deposited at room temperature, presenting the higher content of sp3 carbon (48%), also contain C60 crystalline phase and show a very high hardness of 49GPa. ►Ultrashort PLD of fullerite (C60) target at different substrate temperature. ►Characterization of the morphology and composition of the obtained DLC films. ►Films deposited at room temperature show a very high hardness of 49GPa.