The Influence of Preparation Conditions on the Structural Properties and Hardness of Diamond-Like Carbon Films, Prepared by Plasma Source Ion Implantation

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were prepared from a hydrocarbon precursor gas by plasma source ion implantation (PSII), in which the plasma generation and the film deposition were coupled; i.e., the plasma was generated by the applied voltage and no additional plasma source was used. Several experimental parameters of the PSII process were varied, including the sample bias (high voltage, DC or pulsed), gas pressure, sample holder type and addition of argon in the plasma gas. The influence of the deposition conditions on the carbon bonding and the hydrogen content of the films was then determined using Raman spectroscopy. Nanoindentation was used to determine the hardness of the samples, and a ball-on-disk test to investigate the friction coefficient. Results suggest that films with a lower sp2 content have both a higher hydrogen content and a higher hardness. This counterintuitive finding demonstrated that the carbon bonding is more important to hardness than the reported hydrogen concentration. The highest hardness obtained was 22.4 GPa. With the exception of a few films prepared using a pulsed voltage, all conditions gave DLC films having similarly low friction coefficients, down to 0.049.