Abstract
This study examines the characteristics of diamond-like carbon (DLC) film synthesized on AISI 304 austenite stainless steel by means of a hybrid process of plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) maintained at 60 °C. The former and latter processes under investigation were carried out using methane (0-20 kV) and acetylene (1-2 kV, 0.13-0.40 Pa) plasmas, respectively. Glow discharge spectrometry (GDS), Raman scattering spectroscopy (RSS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), a nano-indentation probe (NIP) and a Rockwell-C hardness tester were employed to characterize, respectively, elemental depth profiles, sp <sup>3</sup> -to-sp <sup>2</sup> ratio, surface morphology, hardness and adhesion strength of the DLC specimen. The results revealed that the mixing layer at the interface generated by plasma immersion ion implantation of methane at a higher voltage could enhance adhesive strength of the DLC film to the substrate. Furthermore, a higher sp <sup>3</sup> -to-sp <sup>2</sup> ratio, a smoother surface, greater hardness, but weaker adhesion strength were obtained for the DLC film synthesized using plasma immersion ion deposition of acetylene at a lower bias voltage or higher gas pressure. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.