Deposition of low energy coatings with DLC-like properties

Organic monomers like acetylene are deposited as hard coatings at low temperatures (smaller than 200 degree Celsius) by means of an electrical glow discharge in a plasma activated CVD-process. In addition to the well- known properties of such diamond-likecarbon (DLC) coatings, also called a-C:H-coatings, which are normally used in tribological applications, the surface energy is a new important criterion to characterise these kind of coatings and to extend the application fields of hard coatings. To influence the surface energy of DLC-coatings, the structure of the coatings can be modified by the incorporation of different elements like flourine, nitrogen, silicon or oxygen into the matrix of the amorphous network. We will briefly report, how the surface energy of DLC- coatings can be strongly reduced, depending on the kind of elements and its concentrations, which were used to modify the network structure.