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Friction, nanostructure, and residual stress of single-layer and multi-layer amorphous carbon films deposited by radio-frequency sputtering

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Abstract

Single- and multi-layer amorphous carbon (a-C) films of varying thickness were deposited on Si(100) substrates by radio-frequency sputtering in a pure Ar atmosphere. The thickness, roughness, coefficient of friction, and residual stress of the a-C films were measured by profilometry, atomic force microscopy, surface force microscopy, and curvature method, respectively. The through-thickness nanostructure and elemental composition of the films were examined by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The multi-layer a-C films, consisting of alternating ∼10-nm-thick hard and soft a-C layers deposited under 0 and −200 V substrate bias, respectively, were found to exhibit lower roughness, coefficient of friction, and residual stress and slightly higher tetrahedral carbon atom hybridization than single-layer a-C films of similar thickness. The results of this study reveal a strong correlation of the friction characteristics with the surface roughness and nanostructure of single- and multi-layer a-C films.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was funded by the Computer Mechanics Laboratory (CML), University of California, Berkeley. The TEM/EELS studies were carried out at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Proposal No. 1886). Work at the Molecular Foundry is supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy (Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231).

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Jun Xie & Kyriakos Komvopoulos

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  1. Jun Xie
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Correspondence to Kyriakos Komvopoulos.

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Xie, J., Komvopoulos, K. Friction, nanostructure, and residual stress of single-layer and multi-layer amorphous carbon films deposited by radio-frequency sputtering. Journal of Materials Research 31, 1857–1864 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.404

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