Electrical resistivities of diamond-like carbon

Electrical resistivities of diamond-like carbon films deposited by d.c. plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition have been investigated in electric fields up to 3 × 106 V cm-1. The films displayed a non-ohmic behavior, with the resistivities decreasing with increasing electric field. Differences of several orders of magnitude have been observed between the resistivities of films deposited from different precursors at identical plasma conditions, with the largest resistivities in excess of 1016 Ω·cm obtained for films deposited from cyclohexane. The breakdown fields have been found to be larger than 3 × 106 V cm-1 for all films studied. © 1994.