Abstract: A set of boron doped tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:B) films were prepared in a filtered cathodic vacuum arc system using boron mixed graphite as targets with weight percentage ranging from 0 to 15%. The chemical bonding states of ta-C:B were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscope. The result shows that B is mainly threefold coordinated and the fraction of sp³ hybridized carbon decreases in magnitude with increasing boron content. Raman analysis also shows that the introduction of B in the ta-C:B films facilitates the clustering of sp² carbon sites which reduces the bonding distortion and intrinsic stress of the films.

Key words: tetrahedral amorphous carbon, XPS, Raman spectrum