We have studied the effects of ambient helium (He) gas pressure and ambient argon (Ar) gas pressure on the optical, structural and physical properties of the carbon (C) films deposited by pulsed laser ablation (PLD) using a camphoric carbon (CC) target. The relation between the film properties, ambient inert gas and inert gas pressure in the deposition is discussed. The optical band gap (E-g) and electrical resistivity (rho) are found to increase at 0.008 Torr He gas pressure and decrease with higher He gas pressure. Whereas, the E-g and rho are found to decrease at 0.01 Torr Ar gas pressure and increase with higher Ar gas pressure. We suggest that these phenomena are due to the effect such as the optimum concentration of the He and Ar atoms in the C lattice. Improvement of the opto-electrical and structural properties of the carbonaceous films deposited in He and Ar gas pressures using CC target reveal different behavior than reported earlier. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.