Enhancement of tribological properties by dynamic mixing of diamond-like carbon/Mo films on steel

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films synthesized by Ar+ beam sputtering on disks of AISI 52100 steel with a molybdenum interlayer were concurrently bombarded by Ne+ with an energy of 100 eV. Owing to high energy Ne+ dynamic mixing at an early stage of molybdenum and carbon deposition, the atomic intermixed layers at the DLC-Mo-steel interfaces and molybdenum carbide phases at the DLC-Mo interface were formed. These structural changes at the interfaces of the molybdenum interlayer increased the hardness and the adhesion of the DLC films to the steel substrate. Friction and wear tests demonstrated that the tribological properties of DLC films deposited on an Mo/steel substrate with atom-mixed interfaces were remarkably improved.