  The simplest way to obtain thin carbon layers is to draw or rub with a
graphite rod. During rubbing, forces of friction acting in graphite/substrate
tribological system cause drastic changes in the structure of the interface
stratum developing thereby stable self-organized and ordered thin structure. We
present a pioneering experimental investigation of structural and morphological
transformations in carbon tribolayers (CTL). By optical microscopy observation
it is found that CTL is a multilayer structure, the essential building block of
which is a transparent phase shaped as a lamina in-between the surface and
bottom disordered layers of CTL. The surface of the lamina exhibits non-linear
electrical conductivity near zero bias on I-V characteristics. The optical
properties of the whole CTL are mostly controlled by physical processes
occurring in the transparent lamina. The Raman spectrum of CTL contains narrow
bands at 1,589 cm-1 and 1,346 cm-1 corresponding to G and D bands of carbon
crystal lattice. The observed features are interpreted using the relationship
between the bond length and corresponding band frequency, r2{\omega}= const.
Optical absorption of CTL has a feature at 4.6 eV originating from strong
electron-hole interaction. From comparative analysis of experimental data,
structural-spectral correspondence is found. It is concluded that because of
phase transformation during rubbing, a carbon structure consisting of sp3
lamina with a nano-scaled thick sp2 layer on the top is shaped.
