| A fundamental study of the correlations between ion energy, substrate temperature, and plasma density with hydrogen content, percent sp2 bonding, optical gap, and refractive index of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C) films is presented. A strong dependency between the ion energy used during deposition and the film's microstructure is shown. Moreover, it is revealed that the optical properties of the a-C films are controlled by the concentration and size of sp2 clusters in the film.;A proof-of-concept a-C based transparent heat mirror (THM) was demonstrated. It was shown that a-C acts as an oxygen-free protective barrier and anti-reflective coating for Ag films in the THM, increasing the transmission in the visible region by 10-20%.;Through N2 mixing in the source gas, room-temperature nitrogen doped polymeric-like a-C films were demonstrated for the first time. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy revealed an increase in the Fermi level of these films with increased nitrogen content. |
