Ly. Chen et Fcn. Hong, Effects of SiOx-incorporation hydrocarbons on the tribological properties of DLC films, DIAM RELAT, 10(3-7), 2001, pp. 1058-1062
The effects of hexamethylsiloxane (HMDSO) reactants are studied on the adhe
sion and tribological properties of DLC films deposited directly on steel a
nd Cr substrates. A 13.56-MHz magnetically confined inductively coupled pla
sma (ICP) system has been applied to deposit diamond-like carbon films usin
g CH, and Si-containing hydrocarbon reactant with bipolar-pulsed substrate
bias. The RF power is varied from 100 W to 400 W and the substrate bias is
varied in the range of 100-400 V to obtain films of different sp(2)/sp(3) c
arbon ratios. The films are deposited on Si, nitriding SKD11, and Cr-plated
SKD11 substrates. By employing CH, reactant, the quality of DLC films is o
ptimized at an RF power of 200 W and a substrate bias of 300 V on Si as ind
icated by Raman spectra. However, DLC films cannot be deposited directly on
steel substrates. Only disintegrated graphite-like powders are observed on
steel. By employing HMDSO reactant containing Si and O atoms, a-C:H/SiOx f
ilms can be deposited directly on steel substrates with very good adherence
. XPS results indicate that carbon is bonded to carbon only and silicon is
bonded to oxygen only. No bonding between C and Si is observed. TEM is bein
g further employed to characterize the microstructure to identify if SiOx n
anoparticles are formed in the DLC matrix. The films deposited directly on
steel using HMDSO show good wear behavior. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A
ll rights reserved.