Superior tribological properties of an amorphous carbon film with a graphite-like structure

Amorphous carbon films with high sp² concentrations are deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering with a narrow range of substrate bias voltage. Field emission scanning electron microscopes (FESEMs), high resolution transmission electron microscopes (HRTEMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs), the Raman spectrometers, nano-indentation, and tribometers are subsequently used to characterize the microstructures and the properties of the resulting films. It is found that the present films are dominated by the sp² sites. However, the films demonstrate a moderate hardness together with a low internal stress. The high hardness of the deposited film originates from the crosslinking of the sp² clusters by the sp³ sites. The presence of the graphite-like clusters in the film structure may be responsible for the low internal stress. What is more important is that the resulting films show excellent tribological properties with high load capacity and excellent wear resistance in humid atmospheres. The relationship between the microstructure determined by the deposition condition and the film characteristic is discussed in detail.