A plasma enhanced physical vapor deposition process deposits an amorphous carbon layer on an ion-implanted wafer for use in dynamic surface annealing of the wafer with an intense line beam of a laser wavelength. The deposition process is carried out at a wafer temperature below the dopant clustering threshold temperature, and includes introducing the wafer into a chamber and furnishing a hydrocarbon process gas into the chamber, preferably propylene (C3H6) or toluene (C7H8) or acetylene (C2H2) or a mixture of acetylene and methane (C2H4). The process further includes inductively coupling RF plasma source power into the chamber while and applying RF plasma bias power to the wafer. The wafer bias voltage is set to a level at which the amorphous carbon layer that is deposited has a desired stress (compressive or tensile). We have discovered that at a wafer temperature less than or equal to 475 degrees C., total RF plasma source power of 4000 Watts at about 2 MHz, RF plasma bias power of 2000-3000 Watts at about 13.56 MHz and a chamber pressure in a range of 3 mTorr to 2 Torr, the deposited amorphous carbon layer has a surprising combination of high absorption and high strength and excellent step coverage.