Carbon nitride thin films have been successfully grown on nickel substrates by a novel arc‐plasma jet chemical vapor deposition. These films were characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Small grains (∼0.1 &mgr;m) as well as nanocrystallites found in the films were identified to be &bgr;‐C3N4. Raman spectroscopy also confirmed the existence of &bgr;‐C3N4phase in the films through five pronounced Raman bands as expected from the Hooke’s law approximation based on the vibrational frequencies obtained in analogous compound, &bgr;‐Si3N4. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.