  Laser-Arc evaporation of a graphite target has been used to deposit carbon
films that exhibit high hardness (45 GPa) and elastic recovery (85%). High
Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy
(EELS) were subsequently used to study the microstructure and bonding of the
resultant layers. The structure of the films from HREM is seen to consist of a
dense array of parallel curved graphene sheet segments packed in various
orientations. EELS reveals that the films are comprised of mainly sp2 bonded
carbon. The results suggest that a new form of carbon thin film with
fullerene-like structure can be realised. In order to explain how a
predominantly sp2 bonded material can exhibit such a high hardness, a simple
model is proposed to correlate the excellent mechanical properties with the
observed structure.
