Structural and optical properties of fullerene-like amorphous carbon with embedded dual-metal nanoparticles

Abstract Dual-metal nanoparticles were simultaneously embedded into amorphous carbon (a-C) matrix at room temperature. As-deposited Au/a-C/Fe sandwich composite multilayer films were fabricated by alternating multitarget pulsed laser deposition. More sp 2 carbon content, narrower Tauc optical gap and stronger photoluminescence intensity of the amorphous carbon films were observed after metal-embedding. Especially for Au/a-C/Fe sandwich films, the fullerene-like microstructure demonstrated that the dual-metal embedding modulated greatly the intrinsic structure and properties of the a-C films. These results were attributed primarily to the extended state around the metal deep level in the band gap and the narrowing of the π and π ∗ band edge states. The metal deep level defects contributed chiefly to non-radiative recombination.