We investigated the formation of quasi one-dimensional conducting filaments in diamond-like carbon (DLC) films by swift heavy ion irradiation. Various DLC films with thicknesses of several 100 nm were grown using mass separated ion beam deposition on highly conducting Si and Ni substrates. After deposition the films were irradiated with 1 GeV ²³⁸U ions with fluences between 10⁹ and 10¹¹ ions/cm². Due to their high electronic energy loss of about 30 keV/nm the swift heavy ions graphitize the predominantly (80%) sp³-bound carbon film along their trajectories yielding conducting nanowires embedded in an insulating matrix. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with conducting cantilevers and applied bias voltage the presence of conducting tracks was confirmed and their conductivities were determined to be several orders of magnitude higher than of the host matrix. Temperature dependent electrical measurements were performed on the irradiated samples at 300 K - 10 K with fields up to 5 V/μm. We will discuss the results with respect to contact resistances and possible one-dimensional conduction mechanisms within the tracks.

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