Improvements in a-C film properties by metal incorporation and intermediate layers

Carbon films (a-C) were grown with the arc-ion-plating technique. We investigated the effect of metal concentrations and intermediate layers with various metals on the properties of a-C layers. For the deposition a vacuum chamber with two arc-targets and an additional sputter target was used to produce Me-C films; metals titanium and zirconium were used. Scratch test and microhardness measurements were carried out to investigate the dependence of adhesion and hardness of the films on the sputter material and the sputter power. We observed a remarkable decrease of the critical load with increasing sputter power. To improve the adhesion of the a-C/Me-C films on stell substrates, thin metal films were deposited. We compared these intermediate layers with regard to their adhesion, measured with the scratch-tester.