Abstract
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) lims were deposited by using end hall type ion gun. Benzene gas was used for the generation of carbon ions. In order to systematically control the ion energy, we applied to the substrate DC, pulsed DC or 250 kHz medium frequency bias voltage, DLC films of superior mechanical properties of hardness 39$\pm$4 GPa and elastic mudulus 290$\pm$50GPa (2 to 6 times better than those of the films deposited by plasma assisted CVD method) could be obtained. Deposition rate was much higher than when using Kaufman type ion source, which results from higher ion beam current of end hall type ion gun. The mechanical properties and atomic bond structure were independent of the bias voltage type ion gun. The mechanical properties and atomic bond structure were independent of the bias voltage type but intimately related with the magnitude of the bias voltage. With increasing the negative bias voltage, the structure of the films changed to graphitic one resulting in decreased content of three dimensional inter-links. Degradation of the mechanical properties with increasing bias voltage could be thus understood in terms of the content odf three dimensional inter-links.
