Abstract
The growth of ultrananocrystalline diamond/nonhydrogenated amorphous carbon composite films was realized by pulsed laser deposition with a graphite target in a nitrogen atmosphere totally excluding hydrogen. The existence of 7 nm diamond grains was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Nitrogen incorporation into the films was confirmed by X-ray photoemission and near-edge X-ray absorption structure spectroscopies, and the nitrogenation produced n-type conduction with an electrical conductivity of 0.2 Omega(-1) . cm(-1) at 300 K. The results of study proved that nitrogen acts as a reactive gas for the formation of diamond grains, similarly to hydrogen. (c) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics