Diamond Like Carbon Films Containing Si: Structure and Nonlinear Optical Properties

In the present research diamond-like carbon (DLC) films containing 4–29 at.% of silicon were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering of carbon target. Study by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed the presence of Si–C bonds in the films. Nevertheless, a significant amount of Si–O–C and Si–O(x) bonds was present too. The shape of the Raman scattering spectra of all studied diamond-like carbon containing silicon (DLC:Si) films was typical for diamond-like carbon. However, some peculiarities related to silicon doping were found. Studies on the dependence of DLC:Si of the optical transmittance spectra on the Si atomic concentration have shown that doping by silicon affects linear, as well as nonlinear, optical properties of the films. It is shown that the normalized reflectance of DLC:Si films decreased with the increased exciting light fluence. No clear relation between the normalized reflectance and photoexcited charge carrier relaxation time was found. It was suggested that that the normalized reflectance decrease with fluence can be related to nonlinear optical properties of the hydrogenated diamond-like carbon phase in DLC:Si film.