Appl. Phys. Lett. 78 (5), 631-633 (2001). [PDF]

Effect of Residual Stress on the Raman Spectrum Analysis of Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon Films

Jin-Koog Shin, Churlseung Lee, Kwang-Ryeol Lee and Kwang Yong Eun

Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films deposited by the filtered vacuum arc process have large compressive residual growth stress that depends on the atomic-bond structure. We observed that the G-peak of the Raman spectrum shifted to a higher wave number by 4.1+_0.5 cm^-1/GPa due to the residual compressive stress. This value agrees well with the calculated Raman-peak shift of the graphite plane due to applied stress. By considering the effect of residual stress on the G-peak position, we also observe a similar dependence between the G-peak position and the atomic-bond structure in both ta-C and hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films; namely, that a higher sp² bond content shifts the G-peak position to a higher wave number.