Cobalt/carbon nanocomposite coating (CoNPs@a-C:H), which consist of cobalt nanoparticles buried in hydrogenated amorphous carbon are prepared by RF-sputtering and RF-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates. In these processes, the coatings are produced from a cobalt sputtered target and acetylene reactant gas. The crystalline structure and surface topography of the deposited films are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) , respectively. The AFM shows that the average size distribution depends on the deposition conditions and RMS varies from 3.5 up to 6 nm. The XRD an alyses indicate the presence of cobalt nanostructure as centered face cubic phase and its oxide, but with no evidence of carbide structure. The energy-dispersive X-rayspectroscopy analysis was used to identify the elements composition in the films and the ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry is used to study surface plasmon resonance bands ofCo nanoparticles.
