Diamond-Like Carbon produced by highly charged ions impact on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite

The formation of Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) structure on the surface of Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) following Xeq+ (q = 5 ∼ 26) ions irradiation with different fluence is studied with Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses in this work. The DLC structure formed on HOPG is shown by the electronic structure transition from sp2 to sp3 hybridization. An obvious evolution of the transition depending on the charge state and the fluence of the impact ions were found. The DLC production is considered to be caused by both kinetic energy and potential energy deposition, the surface structure could be strongly changed due to high-density energy deposition and the intense inelastic electronic energy exchange process.