The properties of nitrogen incorporated amorphous carbon (a-C: N) films with embedded nanoparticles, deposited using a filtered cathodic jet carbon arc technique, are reported. X-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscope and Raman spectroscopy measurements reveal an amorphous structure, but on closer examination the presence of clusters of nanocarbon single crystals with d-spacing close to diamond cubic-phase have also been identified. The effect of substrate bias on the microstructure, conductivity, activation energy, optical band gap, optical constants, residual stress, hardness, elastic modulus, plastic index parameter, percentage elastic recovery and density of states of a-C: N films have been studied and the properties obtained are found to depend on the substrate bias. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.