A. P. Rubshtein, Yu. V. Korkh, A. B. Vladimirov, A. B. Rinkevich, S. A. Plotnikov

STUDYING NANOCOMPOSITE FILMS WITH A MATRIX-FORMING CARBON BY KELVIN PROBE FORCE MICROSCOPY

Nanocomposite TiC/a-C and diamond-like carbon a-C films obtained by vacuum ion-plasma method have been studied by Kelvin Probe force microscopy. Films of thickness 200 nm were deposited on silicon wafers. The structure and composition of nanocomposite TiC/a-C films were varied by deposition conditions. It is shown that the average surface potential V_SP^av depends on the pulse frequency of graphite target sputtering during film deposition. Amount of sp³ bonded carbon on the film surface increases with scale up frequency. The V_SP^av of TiC/a-C nanocomposite films depends on phase composition (Ti, TiC, a-C) and their ratio. The numerical calculated volume fractions of the phases in the TiC/a-C films correlates with V_SP^av.

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