The study of the microscopic scale structure of carbon-based materials: a comparison between Auger-derived density of states structures and molecular dynamics simulations

Valence band features of graphite, diamond and amorphous carbon of density ρ=2.2 g/cm3 have been identified from the analysis of the double-derivative of the carbon KVV Auger lines. Comparison with available experimental data, theoretical data and molecular dynamics calculations has shown that double-differentiated Auger data can be useful for the understanding of the density of states (DOS) of carbon-based materials. Results show that the interpretation of the second derivative Auger structures using atomic-scale simulations can also be used to extract some information on the microscopic structure of the considered amorphous carbon samples.