**4. Conclusions**

In summary, the present work investigates the structural, optical, and electrical behavior of as-deposited and argon-sputtered SiC thin films at varying fluences keeping ion incidence at 500 . Raman studies reveal increased sp3 content in the

surface layers. Both FWHM of G peak and I(D)/I(G) ratio decrease monotonically with increasing argon fluence. Further, an increase in the optical absorption and a shifting of absorption edge toward longer wavelengths has been observed. The I-V Characteristics reveal that the as-deposited and argon-sputtered SiC thin films exhibit ohmic behavior within the designated voltage range of −5 to 5 V. The observed structural behavior is attributed to the different degree of sputtering yield of silicon and carbon at different argon ion fluences. Hence, we propose that these structurally altered SiC thin films find more practical applications in advanced optoelectronics, photovoltaics, media recording, and storage devices.
