Mechanical Properties of Composite SiNx/DLC Films Prepared by Filtered Cathodic Arc of Graphite Incorporated with RF Sputtering of Silicon Nitride — Oak Academic Publishing
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Mechanical Properties of Composite SiNx/DLC Films Prepared by Filtered Cathodic Arc of Graphite Incorporated with RF Sputtering of Silicon Nitride
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Western Digital (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Ayutthaya, Thailand
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Western Digital (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Ayutthaya, Thailand
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Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand
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Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, CHE, Ministry of Education, Bangkok, Thailand
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Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, CHE, Ministry of Education, Bangkok, Thailand
1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Western Digital (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Ayutthaya, Thailand
2 Western Digital (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Ayutthaya, Thailand
3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand
4 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, CHE, Ministry of Education, Bangkok, Thailand
5 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, CHE, Ministry of Education, Bangkok, Thailand
Composite SiN x /DLC films were deposited on Si substrate by RF magnetron sputtering of silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) target simultaneously with filtered cathode arc (FCA) of graphite. The RF power was fixed at 100 W whereas the arc currents of FCA were 20, 40, 60 and 80 A. The effects of arc current on the structure, surface roughness, density and mechanical properties of SiN x /DLC films were investigated. The results show that the arc current in the studied range has effect on the structure, surface roughness, density and mechanical properties of composite SiN x /DLC films. The composite SiN x /DLC films show the sp 3 content between 53.5% and 66.7%, density between 2.54 and2.98 g/cm 3 , stress between 1.7 and 2.2 GPa, and hardness between 35 and 51 GPa. Furthermore, it was found that the density, stress and hardness correlate linearly with the sp 3 content for composite SiN x /DLC films.
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