Nanoscratch properties of extremely thin diamond-like carbon films

Scratch properties of extremely thin (targeted at 0.03–5.0-nm-thick) diamond-like carbon (DLC) films deposited by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) and electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) methods are investigated. The difference in profiles and friction coefficients of scratches in both the corn and edge directions are evaluated. The difference of scratch properties between deposition methods is clearly evaluated by the scratching in the corn direction. When scratching in the corn direction, the friction coefficient and wear depth of the FCVA-DLC film increased rapidly at critical load, whereas those of the ECR-CVD-DLC film increased gradually even beyond this critical load. These results are deduced to be caused by the differences in the hardness and brittleness of the films. The dependence of nanoscratch friction force and scratch profile on DLC film thickness can reveal differences in mechanical properties that correspond to atomic-scale thickness.