Electronic properties of a-CNx thin films: An x-ray-absorption and photoemission spectroscopy study.

The electronic properties of amorphous carbon nitride were studied by x-ray-absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and valence-band photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). The nitrogen incorporation was found to induce graphitization, as evidenced by an increase of the sp² cluster in C and N K-edge XANES spectra. The structure is found to be similar to pyridine. Hybridized C–N bond lengths were determined from the position of the σ^* resonance of XANES spectra and the obtained results suggest sp² hybridization. A valence-band PES spectrum showed that the p-π band became more intense than the p-σ band upon higher at. % nitrogen addition, which confirmed the role played by the π bonds in controlling the electronic structure of a-CN_x films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]