Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) and nitrogenated tetrahedral amorphous carbon films (ta-CNx), deposited by double bend off plane Filtered Vacuum Cathodic Arc were annealed up to 1000 degrees C in flowing argon for 2 min. Modifications on the chemical bonding structure of the rapidly annealed films, as a function of temperature, were investigated by NEXAFS, X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopies. The interpretation of these spectra is discussed. The results demonstrate that the structure of undoped ta-C films prepared at floating potential with an arc current of 80 A remains stable up to 900 degrees C, whereas that of ta-CNx containing 12 at.% nitrogen is stable up to 700 degrees C. At higher temperatures, all the spectra indicated the predominant formation of graphitic carbon. Through NEXAFS studies, we clearly observed three pi* resonance peaks at the N K edge structure. The origin of these three peaks is not well established in the literature. However our temperature-dependant study ascertained that the first peak originates from C=N bonds and the third peak originates from the incorporation of nitrogen into the graphite like domains. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.