Carbon films have been deposited on quartz and single-crystal silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique. The soot for the target was obtained from burning camphor, a natural source. The effect of nitrogen (N) incorporation in camphoric carbon film is investigated. Optical gap for the undoped film is about 0.95eV. The optical gap remains unchanged for low N content and decreases to about 0.7eV. With higher N content the optical gap increases. The resistivity of the carbon film is increased with N content initially and decreases with higher N content till the film is deposited at 30mTorr. The results indicate successful doping for the film deposited at low nitrogen content. The J–V characteristics of N-incorporated carbon/silicon photovoltaic cell under illumination are observed to improve upon N-incorporation in carbon layer.