This Letter reports the synthesis of hard and conductive carbon nanodome thin films over a range of substrate temperature from 50 to 550 degreesC. The size of the nanodomes increases from 40-80 nm at room temperature to 200-400 nm at high temperature (550 degreesC). Electrical characterization shows that these films have conductive behavior with a resistivity depending on the size of the nanodomes. Resistivity values of 19 mOmega cm were found for nanodomes of size 40-80 nm, falling to 6 mOmega cm for nanodomes of size 200-400 nm. Nanoindentation results show that the hardness and Young's modulus of these films are in the range from 9-22 GPa and 100-168 GPa, respectively, and these values decrease as the size of the nanodomes increases. Glancing angle x-ray diffraction results confirm that a crystalline graphitic carbon nitride structure has formed. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.