Properties of carbon films by MCECR plasma sputtering

The Mirror-Confinement-type Electron Cyclotron Resonance (MCECR) plasma source has high plasma density and high electron temperature, and it is quite useful for plasma processing, and has been used for etching and thin-film deposition. Carbon films have received much attention recently due to their interesting properties such as extreme hardness, high electrical resistivity, low coefficient of friction, superior mechanical properties, chemical inertness, biocompatibility, high transparency and chemical inertness, which are close to those of diamond. In this paper, the carbon films about 50nm thickness were deposited on Si (100) by MCECR plasma sputtering the sintered carbon target with the argon plasma, and its properties were studied. The bonding structure of the film was analyzed by using the x-ray photoelectron spectropscopy (XPS) and the nanostructure was evaluated with the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The tribological properties (friction coefficient, wear rate, and wear life) of the film are investigated by using the Pin-on-Disk tribometer under the conditions that the normal load is 1N and the sliding velocity is 0.05m/s. The nanohardness of the films was measured by using the nanoindenter under conditions that the maximum displacement is 30nm and the maximum load is 500μN. The surface morphology was studied by using the atomic force microscope (AFM).