XPS and NRA depth profiling of nitrogen and carbon simultaneously implanted into copper to synthesize C₃N₄ like compounds

Carbon nitride nano-compounds have been synthesized into copper by simultaneous high fluence (10 at. cm) implantation of C and N ions. The implantations were performed with a 2 MV Tandem accelerator. The terminal voltage was fixed at 400 kV and the target temperature was maintained at 250 °C during the process. Depth profiling of C and N has been performed using (d,p) and (d,α) nuclear reactions induced by a 1.05 MeV deuteron beam. The retained dose deduced from NRA measurement is relatively close to the implanted one, which indicates that carbon and nitrogen diffusion processes were likely limited during implantation. The chemical bonds between carbon and nitrogen were studied as a function of depth by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The C 1s and N 1s core level photoelectron spectra revealed the presence of different types of C-N bonds, which correspond to specific kinds of chemical states. These results indicate that different carbon nitride compounds have been formed during the implantation. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.