2024/06/11 by Callum Wiseman, Wiseman, Callum, Marwa Ben Yaala Chalisa Gier +9
Engineering · Materials Science · #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Metal and Thin Film Mechanics #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.07144
openalex publication_date 2024/06/11 · openalex created_date 2024/06/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A novel high-energy electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion beam deposition (IBD) technique was used to fabricate DLC films at different ion beam energies. The ratios of sp2/sp3 bonding in the DLC coatings were determined by Raman spectroscopy and XPS, with the confirmation of being hydrogen-free due to the lack of photoluminescence (PL) background in the Raman spectra. The results indicate that the sp3 percentage ranges from 45% - 85% for the ECR-IBD fabricated DLC films in this study. Monte-Carlo based SRIM simulation was used to extract the energy and angular distribution of the sputtered particles from the carbon target and correlate it to the highest sp3 fraction in the manufactured ECR-IBD DLCs. This study demonstrates a method of depositing DLC thin films under ambient conditions (room temperature with no post-annealing or additional bias voltage applied) which produces high-sp3 coatings (higher than those traditionally reported for other sputtering methods) suitable for applications where high quality DLC coatings are required.