Probing carbon nanoparticles in CNx thin films using Raman spectroscopy -: art. no. 035406

Carbon nitride films prepared by magnetron sputtering were studied by multiwavelength Raman spectroscopy. The low/intermediate wavenumber features observed near 400 and 700 cm(-1) are addressed, and the relaxation of the Raman selection rule due to curvature of the graphene planes in the nanoparticles (similar to carbon nanoonions) embedded in CNx thin films is invoked to explain the possible origin of the near 700 cm(-1) band. The shift in the G peak center and I-D/I-G ratio are correlated with the observed microstructural changes (published before) in order to understand the effect of nitrogenation and deposition temperature on the structure of the films.