Dynamic Behavior of Carbon Ultrathin Film Formation

We present here investigations of the initial steps in the formation of ultrathin carbon films on a carbon highly oriented pyrolytic graphite substrate by the deposition of low energy carbon ions at temperatures from ambient to 300 °C. We used an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy to observe the growth of these films. At a nanometer scale, we revealed a roughening transition of the island’s growth, from lateral to tridimensional growth. Also, here we introduce the scaling analysis of roughness to describe the evolution of the morphology of the interface during growth. The ultrathin film formation mechanisms are studied as a function of ion density and annealing.