Tribological performance of a sputtered $MoS_2$ film having an oxidized surface layer

An oxidized surface layer was intentionally formed on a sputtered $MoS_2$ film by introducing oxygen gas in the final stage of sputtering process. The film showed longer life than the normal Ar-sputtered film when the surface layer was slightly oxidized. A XPS analysis revealed co-existence of $MoS_2$ and $MoO_3$ in the surface layer. suggesting that the existence of some amount of oxides in the surface layer had beneficial effect. A confusing result was obtained: the life was much shorter than normal Ar-sputtered film when the film was exposed to $O_2$ environment for 1 minute after normal Ar-sputtering, although almost no oxide was detected in XPS analysis.