RESUMO
The roughness of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films grown at room temperature is measured as a function of film thickness by atomic force microscopy, to extract roughness and growth exponents of alpha approximately 0.39 and beta approximately 0-0.1, respectively. This extremely small growth exponent shows that some form of surface diffusion and relaxation operates at a homologous temperature of 0.07, much lower than in any other material. This is accounted for by a Monte Carlo simulation, which assumes a smoothening during a thermal spike, following energetic ion deposition. The low roughness allows ta-C to be used as an ultrathin protective coating on magnetic disk storage systems with approximately 1 Tbit/in.(2) storage density.
RESUMO
CH(x) films on silicon substrates deposited by a Mesh Hollow Cathode Process (MHC) were analyzed by various techniques. The films were produced with varying deposition times, resulting in thicknesses ranging from ~2-20 nm. X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR) was used to determine the film thicknesses and the deposition rate. A good correlation of measured XRR thicknesses with SIMS sputter depths down to the film-substrate transition was found. An AFM-based nanoscratching technique was applied to test the wear resistance of the thin overcoats. The MHC films reveal slightly decreasing scratch resistance for reduced film thicknesses, which can be explained by a higher fraction of soft interface zones for thinner films. This is in accordance with Raman spectroscopic measurements in the visible spectral range which were carried out to examine the carbon bonding properties. Combined analysis of G peak position and D/G peak intensity ratio indicates a more graphitic structure for film thicknesses less than 10 nm.