Most amorphous carbon (a-C) applications require films with ultra-thin thicknesses;however,the electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics of such films remain unclear so far.To address this issue,we developed a theoretical model based on the density functional theory and molecular dynamic simulations,in order to calculate the electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics of the ultra-thin a-C films at different densities and temperatures.Temperature was found to have a weak influence over the resulting electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics,whereas density had a significant influence on these aspects.The volume fraction of sp3 bonding increased with density,whereas that of sp2 bonding initially increased,reached a peak value of 2.52 g/cm3,and then decreased rapidly.Moreover,the extinction coefficients of the ultra-thin a-C films were found to be density-sensitive in the long-wavelength regime.This implies that switching the volume ratio of sp2 to sp3 bonding can effectively alter the transmittances of ultra-thin a-C films,and this can serve as a novel approach toward photonic memory applications.Nevertheless,the electrical resistivity of the ultra-thin a-C films appeared independent of temperature.This implicitly indicates that the electrical switching behavior of a-C films previously utilized for non-volatile storage applications is likely due to an electrically induced effect and not a purely thermal consequence.