Characteristics of Palladium Doped Amorphous Carbon Films Fabricated by Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering System

Generally, hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) has been shown to have a low friction coefficient, high hardness, and low abrasive wear rate. In this study, Pd doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H:Pd) fabricated by the closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering (CFUBMS) system with two targets of carbon and palladium in Ar/C2H2 plasma. The tribological and lubricant characteristics for a-C:H:Pd fabricated with various DC bias voltage from 0 to −200 V were investigated. We obtained a hardness up to 27.5 GPa and friction coefficient lower than 0.1. The atomic percentage of Pd related to the lubricant properties increased up to 22% at −200 V. In the results, the Pd doping in the a-C:H films improved the tribological and lubricant properties. The friction coefficient value of a-C:H:Pd films was decreased, the hardness and elastic modulus were increased, and also the adhesion properties was improved with the increase of negative DC bias voltage.