Highlights Kinetics of graphitization of diamond like carbon films coated with Ni nanoparticles; High electrical conductivities of Ni-coated diamond like carbon films; Raman mapping of graphitic fragments in Ni-coated diamond like carbon films. Prime Novelty and projected Interest: Kinetics of graphitization at 773K of thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) films coated with minute amount of Ni metallic particles; High surface electrical conductivities, which are quite promising and competitive in comparison to literature data dealing with transparent electrodes. Correlation between conductivity models and Raman measurements in Catalytic metal/DLC material Abstract In this paper, we have studied the kinetics of graphitization at 773K of thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) films coated with minute amount of Ni metallic particles. DLC films are deposited at room temperature by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on a transparent quartz substrate, and Ni is deposited on the surface of DLC using molecular beam epitaxy technique at room temperature. The ultra-high vacuum thermal (range 573-873K with 60 min annealing treatments) and kinetic (range 30-3760 min at 773K) behaviors of the deposited films are investigated. Surface and interface characterizations indicate that the growth of graphitic sp 2 clusters starts at temperatures lower than 573K. The kinetics of graphitization is recorded at 773K. Thus, the continuous growth of graphitic clusters leads to a long-range kinetics. These clusters are responsible for the increase in the electrical conductivity and carrier mobility, reaching values of 6.10 3 Siemens/cm and 20 V/cm 2 s, respectively. This continuous change is not only explained by the nucleation and growth of graphitic clusters, but also by some reorientation of them alongside both the surface and the quartz substrate. The obtained results demonstrate that thermally post-treated catalytic metal/DLC films are promising materials for conductive electrodes and sensing applications.