Carbon nitride films (CNx) have been deposited by sputtering a graphite target with nitrogen ions. Films were grown both with and without the presence of an assisting focused N-2 ion beam. The sputter beam voltage was varied between 150 and 1500 V and the applied assisting beam voltage from 80 to 500 V. The substrate was held at fixed temperatures between 80 and 673 K. The coatings were characterized with respect to their electrical, optical; and structural properties. The nitrogen content was measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and a maximum nitrogen concentration of 44 at. % was obtained for a nonassisted sample deposited at 140 K. The chemical structure was investigated by XPS and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Reduction of the substrate temperature in conjunction with low sputter beam voltages (<200 V) caused the optical band gap to increase up to 2.2 eV, the sheet conductivity to decrease to less than 10(-9) (Omega cm)(-1) and the density to be reduced to 1.6 g/cm(3). The increasing transparency is accompanied by structural changes indicating a transition from a predominantly sp(2) bonded amorphous sp(2)/sp(3) C-N network to a more linear polymerlike structure consisting predominantly of doubly and triply bonded C and N atoms. No evidence for the formation of the beta-C3N4 phase was found.