Effects of Substrate Bias on Tribological Properties of Diamondlike Carbon Thin Films Deposited Via Microwave Excited Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

In this study, the structure and tribological performance of the diamondlike carbon (DLC) films were related to deposition parameters. The feasibility of the microwaveexcited plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition (خ¼WPECVD) as a process to produce good quality DLC films was the focus. The DLC films were deposited on the steel substrates with a tungsten carbide interlayer via خ¼WPECVD. The negative substrate bias used during the film deposition was varied. The Raman results revealed that the increased negative substrate bias increased the sp3 bonding in the DLC films as a result of the increased kinetic energy of filmforming ions during the film deposition. The tribological results clearly indicated that the friction and wear of the DLCcoated steel samples against a 100Cr6 steel ball significantly decreased with increased negative substrate bias due to the significantly improved wear resistance of the DLC films.