Nickel incorporated amorphous hydrogenated carbon (Ni/a:C-H) thin films were deposited onto the Si substrates via biased target ion beam sputtering of nickel combined with reactive ion beam deposition of a:C-H using CH(4)/Ar gas mixture. The effects of Ni doping and target bias voltage on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-deposited films were investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and nanoindentation. It was found that the Ni content in the films gets increased with increasing target bias voltage, and most of the Ni atoms react with C atoms to form NiC(x) phases in the Ni/a:C-H films. Moreover, the nickel carbide nanoparticles attain crystallinity even at low deposition temperature and get embedded in the cross-linked carbon matrix. It was found that the presence of Ni(3)C nanoparticles tends to increase the content of sp(2) carbon, thus decreasing the hardness of Ni/a:C-H films as compared with that of a:C-H films. Additionally it was found that the nickel incorporated films do not show any adverse effect on the osteoblast cellular adhesion. Overall, these carbidic nanocrystals initiate direct graphitization and intend to change diamond-like to graphite-like carbon structure in Ni/a:C-H films with promising biocompatibility. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.