Preparation and tribological properties of DLC/Ti film by pulsed laser arc deposition

This paper reports that DLC （diamond like carbon）/Ti and DLC films were prepared by using pulsed laser arc deposition. R-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, nanoindenter, spectroscopic ellipsometer, surface profiler and micro-tribometer were employed to study the structure and tribological properties of DLC/Ti and DLC films. The results show that DLC/Ti film, with I（D）/I（G） 0.28 and corresponding to 76% sp3 content calculated by Raman spectroscopy, uniform chemical composition along depth direction, 98 at% content of carbon, hardness 8.2 GPa and Young＇s modulus 110.5 GPa, compressive stress 6.579 GPa, thickness 46 nm, coefficient of friction 0.08, and critical load 95mN, exhibits excellent mechanical and tribological properties.     

Optical and Electrical Properties Evolution of Diamond-Like Carbon Thin Films with Deposition Temperature

Optical and electrical properties of diamond-like carbon （DLC） films deposited by pulsed laser ablation of graphite target at different substrate temperatures are reported. By varying the deposition temperature from 400 to 25℃, the film optical transparency and electrical resistivity increase severely. Most importantly, the transparency and resistivity properties of the DLC films can be tailored to approaching diamond by adjusting the deposition temperature, which is critical to many applications. DLC films deposited at low temperatures show excellent optical transmittance and high resistivity. Over the same temperature regime an increase of the spa bonded C content is observed using visible Raman spectroscopy, which is responsible for the enhanced transparency and resistivity properties.     

Effect of Gas Pressure on Nanocrystalline Diamond Films Prepared by Electron-Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition

With use of electron-assisted chemical vapour deposition （EACVD） technology, nanocrystalline diamond films are successfully deposited on an α-SiC single phase ceramics substrate by means of reduction of the reactive gas pressure. The structure and surface morphology of the deposited films are characterized by Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction （XRD）, field emission scanning electron microscopy （FE-SEM） and atomic force microscopy （AFM）. The results examined by FE-SEM and AFM show that when the gas pressure was reduced to 0.5- 1 kPa, the surface grain size and surface roughness of the diamond film are decreased greatly to 18-32nm and 34-58nm respectively. The grain sizes estimated from full with at half maximum of （111） XRD peak by the Scherrer formula are 6-28 nm. However, too high secondary nucleation rate may result in pores and defects in the deposited films. Only at suitable gas pressure （1 kPa） to deposit films can we obtain densification and better quality nanocrystalline films.     

Effect of substrate temperature on the morphological,structural,and optical properties of RF sputtered Ge_(1-x)Sn_x films on Si substrate

In this study, Ge_(1-x)Sn_x alloy films are co-sputtered on Si(100) substrates using RF magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures. Scanning electron micrographs, atomic force microscopy(AFM), Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy(XPS) are conducted to investigate the effect of substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of grown Ge Sn alloy films. AFM results show that RMS surface roughness of the films increases from 1.02 to 2.30 nm when raising the substrate temperature. This increase could be due to Sn surface segregation that occurs when raising the substrate temperature. Raman spectra exhibits the lowest FWHM value and highest phonon intensity for a film sputtered at 140?C. The spectra show that decreasing the deposition temperature to 140?C improves the crystalline quality of the alloy films and increases nanocrystalline phase formation. The results of Raman spectra and XPS confirm Ge–Sn bond formation. The optoelectronic characteristics of fabricated metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors on sputtered samples at room temperature(RT) and 140?C are studied in the dark and under illumination. The sample sputtered at 140?C performs better than the RT sputtered sample.     

Deposition of Diamond-Like carbon Films by High-Intensity Pulsed Ion Beam Ablation at Various Substrate Temperatures

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been deposited on to Si substrates at substrate temperatures from 255℃ to 400O℃ by a high-intensity pulsed-ion-beam (HIPIB) ablation deposition technique. The formation of DLC is confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. According to an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, the concentration of sp^3 carbon in the films is about 40% when the substrate temperature is below 300℃ C. With increasing substratetemperature from 25℃ to 400℃, the concentration of sp^3 carbon decreases from 43% to 8%. In other words,sp3 carbon is graphitized into sp^2 carbon when the substrate temperature is above 300℃. The results of xray diffraction and atomic force microscopy show that, with increasing the substrate temperature, the surface roughness and the friction coefficient increase, and the microhardness and the residual stress of the films decrease.     

Effects of Substrate Temperature and Nitrogen Pressure on Growth of AIN Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Highly oriented aluminium nitride （AIN） films are grown on p-Si （100） substrates by pulsed laser deposition, and their characteristics of structure and composition are studied by x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the deposited films exhibit good crystalline properties with a sharp x-ray diffraction peak at 2θ= 33.15 ° corresponding to AIN h （100） crystalline orientation. The influences of substrate temperature and ambient nitrogen （N2） pressure on the crystallinity of A1N films are remarkable. At room temperature, when the ambient N2 pressure arises from 5 × 10^-6 Pa to 5 Pa, the crystallinity of the film becomes better. When the substrate temperature is 600℃, the film has the best crystallinity at 0.05 Pa. Furthermore, the effects of substrate temperature and ambient N2 pressure on the combination of A1-N bonds and surface morphology of AIN films are also studied.     

White Light Emission from ZnS:Mn Thin Films Deposited on GaN Substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition

ZnS:Mn thin films are grown on GaN substrates by pulsed laser deposition.The structure,morphology and optical properties are investigated by x-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence(PL).The obtained ZnS:Mn thin films are grown in preferred orientation along β-ZnS(111) direction corresponding to crystalline structure of cubic phase.The deposition temperature has an obvious effect on the structure,surface morphology and optical properties of ZnS:Mn thin films.PL measurements show that there are two emission bands located at 440 nm and 595 nm when the films are deposited at temperatures from 100℃ to 500℃.The relative integrated intensity of the blue emission and orange-red emission is determined by the deposition conditions.At the proper deposition temperature of 300℃,the color coordinate is closest to(0.33,0.33).The ZnS:Mn films on GaN substrates can exhibit white fight emission.     

Characterization of zirconium thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Zirconium(Zr) thin films deposited on Si(100) by pulsed laser deposition(PLD) at different pulse repetition rates are investigated. The deposited Zr films exhibit a polycrystalline structure, and the X-ray diffraction(XRD) patterns of the films show the α Zr phase. Due to the morphology variation of the target and the laser–plasma interaction, the deposition rate significantly decreases from 0.0431 /pulse at 2 Hz to 0.0189 /pulse at 20 Hz. The presence of droplets on the surface of the deposited film, which is one of the main disadvantages of the PLD, is observed at various pulse repetition rates. Statistical results show that the dimension and the density of the droplets increase with an increasing pulse repetition rate. We find that the source of droplets is the liquid layer formed under the target surface. The dense nanoparticles covered on the film surface are observed through atomic force microscopy(AFM). The root mean square(RMS) roughness caused by valleys and islands on the film surface initially increases and then decreases with the increasing pulse repetition rate.The results of our investigation will be useful to optimize the synthesis conditions of the Zr films.     

In-situ monitoring of EuTiO_3 and SrTiO_3 film growth using time-resolved X-ray scattering during pulsed-laser deposition

Time-resolved X-ray scattering was employed to in-situ monitor the epitaxial growth process of the thin films and multilayers of EuTiO3 and SrTiO3 during pulsed laser deposition. The temporal intensity oscillations of the reflected X-rays at auti-Bragg position and the transient processes following the flux pulses were observed. The temporal intensity oscillations were used to control the film thickness, and the reflectivity along the crystal truncation rod was used to measure both the film thickness and the surface/interface roughness. The primary features of the X-ray intensity oscillations were reproduced via simulating the experimental data using diffusive rate equation model. Several mechanisms of determining the X-ray intensity features were discerned.     

Nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by laser—induced crystallization

The excimer laser-induced crystallization technique has been used to investigate the preparation of nanocrystalline silicon(nc-Si) from amorphous silicon(α-Si) thin films on silicon or glass substrates.The α-Si films without hydrogen grown by pulsed -laser deposition are chosen as precursor to avoid the problem of hydrogen effluence during annealing,Analyses have been performed by scanning electron microscopy,atomic force microscopy,Raman scattering spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy.Experimental results show that silicon nanocrystals can be formed through laser annealing.The growth characters of nc-Si are strongly dependent on the laser energy density.It is shown that the volume of the molten silicon predominates essentially the grain size of nc-Si,and the surface tension of the crystallized silicon is responsible for the mechanism of nc-Si growth.     

Studies of diamond-like carbon （DLC） films deposited on stainless steel substrate with Si/SiC intermediate layers

In this work, diamond-like carbon （DLC） films were deposited on stainless steel substrates with Si/SiC intermediate layers by combining plasma enhanced sputtering physical vapour deposition （PEUMS-PVD） and microwave electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （MW-ECRPECVD） techniques. The influence of substrate negative self-bias voltage and Si target power on the structure and nano-mechanical behaviour of the DLC films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, nano-indentation, and the film structural morphology by atomic force microscopy （AFM）. With the increase of deposition bias voltage, the G band shifted to higher wave-number and the integrated intensity ratio ID/IG increased. We considered these as evidences for the development of graphitization in the films. As the substrate negative self-bias voltage increased, particle bombardment function was enhanced and the sp^3-bond carbon density reducing, resulted in the peak values of hardness （H） and elastic modulus （E）. Silicon addition promoted the formation of sp^3 bonding and reduced the hardness. The incorporated Si atoms substituted sp^2- bond carbon atoms in ring structures, which promoted the formation of sp^3-bond. The structural transition from C-C to C-Si bonds resulted in relaxation of the residual stress which led to the decrease of internal stress and hardness. The results of AFM indicated that the films was dense and homogeneous, the roughness of the films was decreased due to the increase of substrate negative self-bias voltage and the Si target power.     

Surface properties of diamond-like carbon films prepared by CVD and PVD methods

Diamond-like carbon （DLC） films have been deposited using three different techniques： （a） electron cyclotron resonance——plasma source ion implantation, （b） low-pressure dielectric barrier discharge, （c） filtered——pulsed cathodic arc discharge, The surface and mechanical properties of these films are compared using atomic force microscopebased tests. The experimental results show that hydrogenated DLC films are covered with soft surface layers enriched with hydrogen and sp^3 hybridized carbon while the soft surface layers of tetrahedral amorphous carbon （ta-C） films have graphite-like structure, The formation of soft surface layers can be associated with the surface diffusion and growth induced by the low-energy deposition process. For typical CVD methods, the atomic hydrogen in the plasmas can contribute to the formation of hydrogen and sp^3 hybridized carbon enriched surface layers, The high-energy ion implantation causes the rearrangement of atoms beneath the surface layer and leads to an increase in film density. The ta-C films can be deposited using the medium energy carbon ions in the highly-ionized plasma.     

Effect of substrate morphology on the roughness evolution of ultra thin DLC films

The effect of substrate roughness on growth of ultra thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) films has been studied. The ultra thin DLC films have been deposited on silicon substrates with initial surface roughness of 0.15, 0.46 and 1.08 nm using a filted cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) system. The films were characterized by Raman spectroscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to investigate the evolution of the surface roughness as a function of the film thickness. The experimental results show that the evolution of the surface morphology in an atomic scale depends on the initial surface morphology of the silicon substrate. For smooth silicon substrate (initial surface roughness of 0.15 nm), the surface roughness decreased with DLC thickness. However, for silicon substrate with initial surface roughness of 0.46 and 1.08 nm, the film surface roughness decreased first and then increased to a maximum and subsequently decreased again. The preferred growth of the valley and the island growth of DLC were employed to interpret the influence of substrate morphology on the evolution of DLC film roughness.     

A comparative study of YBa2Cu3O7-δ/YSZ bilayer films deposited on silicon-on-insulator substrates with and without HF pretreatment

Highly epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) bilayer thin films have been deposited on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates by using in situ pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. In the experiment, the native amorphous SiO2 layers on some of the SOI substrates are removed by dipping them in a 10% HF solution for 15 s. Comparing several qualities of films grown on substrates with or without HF pretreatment, such as thin film crystallinity, general surface roughness, temperature dependence of resistance, surface morphology, as well as average crack spacing and crack width, naturally leads to the conclusion that preserving the native SiO2 layer on the surface of the SOI substrate can not only simplify the experimental process but can also achieve fairly high quality YSZ and YBCO thin films.     

The protective properties of ultra-thin diamond like carbon films for high density magnetic storage devices

With the increase of magnetic storage density, the thickness of the protective diamond like carbon (DLC) film on the surfaces of head and disk is required as thin as possible. In this paper, the structure, mechanical properties and corrosion and oxidation resistance of ultra-thin DLC films are investigated. The ultra-thin DLC films were deposited by using filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. The exact thickness of the ultra-thin DLC film was determined by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Raman analysis indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film presents ta-C structure with high sp³ fraction. In the wear test, a diamond tip was used to simulate a single-asperity contact with the film surface and the wear marks were produced on the film surface. The wear depths decrease with film thickness increasing. If the film thickness was 1.4 nm or above, the wear depth was much lower than that of Si substrate. This indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm shows excellent wear resistance. Corrosion tests in water and oxidation tests in air were carried out to investigate the diffusion barrier effect of the ultra-thin DLC films. The results show that the DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm provides adequate coverage on the substrate and has good corrosion and oxidation resistance.     

In situ infrared spectroscopic study of cubicboron nitride thin film delamination

This paper investigates the procedure of cubic boron nitride （cBN） thin film delamination by Fourier-transform infrared （IR） spectroscopy. It finds that the apparent IR absorption peak area near 1380cm^-1 and 1073 cm^-1 attributed to the B-N stretching vibration of sp2-bonded BN and the transverse optical phonon of cBN, respectively, increased up to 195% and 175% of the original peak area after film delamination induced compressive stress relaxation. The increase of IR absorption of sp2-bonded BN is found to be non-linear and hysteretic to film delamination, which suggests that the relaxation of the turbostratic BN （tBN） layer from the compressed condition is also hysteretic to film delamination. Moreover, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopic observations revealed that cBN film delamination is possible from near the aBN（amorphous BN）/tBN interface at least for films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.     

带状真空电弧磁过滤器等离子体分布特性及制备类金刚石膜研究

采用大尺寸矩形石墨靶作为真空阴极电弧源, 研制了带状真空电弧磁过滤器. 使用法拉第杯和朗缪尔探针对90 ℃弯曲磁过滤器中的带状等离子体出口所在平面的15个区域的离子能量和密度进行了测试; 用该带状真空电弧磁过滤器制备了类金刚石膜(diamond-like carbon, DLC); 对相应位置上的类金刚石膜进行了Raman分析和膜厚测量. 结果表明: 磁过滤器出口所在平面的15个划分区域中离子能量分布接近麦克斯韦分布, 离子能量分布与类金刚石膜的结构具有明显的对应特征, 离子密度分布与DLC膜膜厚分布相互之间具有相关性.     

Optical and electrical properties of BaSnO3 and In2O3 mixed transparent conductive films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique at room temperature

For the crystalline temperature of BaSnO$_{3}$ (BTO) was above 650 ℃, the transparent conductive BTO-based films were always deposited above this temperature on epitaxy substrates by pulsed laser deposition or molecular beam epitaxy till now which limited there application in low temperature device process. In the article, the microstructure, optical and electrical of BTO and In$_{2}$O$_{3}$ mixed transparent conductive BaInSnO$_x$ (BITO) film deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique (FCVA) on glass substrate at room temperature were firstly reported. The BITO film with thickness of 300 nm had mainly In$_{2}$O$_{3}$ polycrystalline phase, and minor polycrystalline BTO phase with (001), (011), (111), (002), (222) crystal faces which were first deposited at room temperature on amorphous glass. The transmittance was 70%-80% in the visible light region with linear refractive index of 1.94 and extinction coefficient of 0.004 at 550-nm wavelength. The basic optical properties included the real and imaginary parts, high frequency dielectric constants, the absorption coefficient, the Urbach energy, the indirect and direct band gaps, the oscillator and dispersion energies, the static refractive index and dielectric constant, the average oscillator wavelength, oscillator length strength, the linear and the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities, and the nonlinear refractive index were all calculated. The film was the n-type conductor with sheet resistance of 704.7 $\Omega /\Box $, resistivity of 0.02 $\Omega \cdot$cm, mobility of 18.9 cm$^{2}$/V$\cdot$s, and carrier electron concentration of $1.6\times 10^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$ at room temperature. The results suggested that the BITO film deposited by FCVA had potential application in transparent conductive films-based low temperature device process.     

The microstructure, mechanical and friction properties of protective diamond like carbon films on magnesium alloy

Protective hard coatings deposited on magnesium alloys are believed to be effective for overcoming their poor wear properties. In this work, diamond-like carbon (DLC) films as hard protective films were deposited on AZ91 magnesium alloy by arc ion plating under negative pulse bias voltages ranging from 0 to −200 V. The microstructure, composition and mechanical properties of the DLC films were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nanoindentation. The tribological behavior of uncoated and coated AZ91 magnesium alloy was investigated using a ball-on-disk tribotester. The results show that the negative pulse bias voltage used for film deposition has a significant effect on the sp³ carbon content and mechanical properties of the deposited DLC films. A maximum sp³ content of 33.3% was obtained at −100 V, resulting in a high hardness of 28.6 GPa and elastic modulus of 300.0 GPa. The DLC films showed very good adhesion to the AZ91 magnesium alloy with no observable cracks and delamination even during friction testing. Compared with the uncoated AZ91 magnesium alloy, the magnesium alloy coated with DLC films exhibits a low friction coefficient and a narrow, shallow wear track. The wear resistance and surface hardness of AZ91 magnesium alloy can be significantly improved by coating a layer of DLC protective film due to its high hardness and low friction coefficient.