Plasma study and deposition of DLC/TiC/Ti multilayer structures using technique combining pulsed laser deposition and magnetron sputtering

We prepared nanostructured coatings composed of diamond-like carbon (DLC), titanium and titanium carbide using a new hybrid technique combining pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with magnetron sputtering. The whole deposition process was fully computer controlled. The coatings consist from a number of 1–20 nm-thick alternating particular layers forming in total 0.4 μm-thick structure. A set of samples with different relative composition of Ti, TiC and DLC were prepared. Thin interlayer of titanium carbide was formed by simultaneous process of pulsed laser deposition (carbon) and magnetron sputtering (Ti). Microstructure was characterized by XRD. Mechanical properties were measured. The deposition process was investigated using an optical emission spectroscopy. The plasma was analyzed with a spatial and a time resolution.