Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.386, 179-182, 2002
Super-hard conductive carbon nano-crystallite films
Carbon films whose hardness is comparable to diamond's, but whose electrical conductivity is 19 orders of magnitude larger, have been discovered. They were deposited onto silicon substrate by electron cyclotron resonance plasma sputtering. The bonding structure of the film is mainly sp(2) . The film consists of sp(2) nano-crystallites having parallel and curved graphene sheets vertically oriented to film surface. The sp(2) nano-crystallites are connected with adjacent crystallites by sp(3) bonding, which gives the film both its high hardness and conductivity. The formation of this sp(2) nano-crystallite film suggests that many applications should be possible.