Carbon Surfaces and Carbon Film Morphology Studied by Emission Electron Microscopy
Carbon is a pervasive contaminant on technologically important surfaces, and has long been of interest in surface science and microscopy. Recent advances in the production of high density carbon films and synthetic diamond films [1,2] have focused attention on the nucleation and growth of carbon on refractory metal substrates, semiconductors and other phases of carbon itself. Some of the issues involved are the role of carbides in promoting diamond nucleation and the specifics of graphite removal from the film through reactive sputtering or conversion to more dense phases (by as yet not understood processes).Emission microscopy, in particular photo- and thermal emission microscopy, is especially suited to the study of carbon film nucleation and growth. Carbides are easily observed. [3] Because several carbon phases have differing work functions, they may be selectively imaged by variation of the incident light wavelength, and thus the photoemission threshold, providing information on film composition in the image. Figures 1 and 2 show a Pt(100) surface covered with CO, atomic carbon and some graphitic areas, imaged with a microscope similar to the one in [3] using an HBO 100 lamp. [4] In figure 2 a 280 nm edge filter was placed in front of the lamp, so that only the graphitic areas (work function below 4.4 eV) are visible. Due to the image contrast in photoemission from differing materials, decoration of steps and defects by carbon is visible. In figure 3 step bunch edges on the Pt(100) surface have been decorated with carbon from the decomposition of ethylene; figure 4 shows another area of the surface where the terraces are carbon coated, and the step edges are “clean.” The slip trace features suggest that the dark lines are mono-atomic steps.[5]