In this study nickel–carbon (Ni–C) nanocomposite thin films composed of Ni nanoparticles with different average sizes embedded in amorphous hydrogenated carbon, were prepared through the combination of radio frequency sputtering and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition techniques. Such samples were used as experimental models to study the three dimensional surface morphology properties in thin films by atomic force microscopy imaging and fractal analysis over square areas of 1 μm 9 1 μm. The deposition time was varied at 7, 10 and 13 min, respectively, to study changes in the properties of the obtained films. The studied samples exhibited fractal properties characterized by fractal dimensions dependent on the deposition time with values between 2.43 ± 0.01 and 2.71 ± 0.01.
