Solid state NMR study of carbon bonding in amorphous hydrogenated carbon films

Carbon bonding environments in hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a-C:H) deposited from an rf-biased methane plasma onto various substrates have been quantified by application of solid state¹³C NMR. A family of films were prepared by systematically varying the substrate bias voltage. Quantitative data on carbon chemistry in these films is required for modeling the impact of structure on mechanical and optical properties. A variety of NMR acquisition pulse sequences have been investigated to determine the conditions under which quantitative¹³C NMR data can be acquired in this system. The results indicate that data acquisition from this material requires different protocols than for the study of polymeric hydrocarbon films. With proper experimental design, NMR is an excellent technique for structural studies of these materials.