查看文章

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films can be prepared by various techniques. Among these processes, the cathodic arc evaporation of a pure carbon source has the advantage that variables such as evaporation rate, substrate temperature and substrate bias voltage can be independently managed. Furthermore, it allows us to synthesize hydrogenated or hydrogen-free carbon films.

Because of its negative temperature coefficient of electrical resistivity, carbon is a diffucult material to evaporate and the plasma stream generated from arc spots contains a large quantity of macroparticles. The present study of DLC films synthesized by arc evaporation introduces the solution employed to produce a pure carbon plasma stream for the formation of hard carbon films.

The enhanced arc process based on a modified rectilinear plasma optic system is described and the influence of the process and deposition conditions in steering …