IMPROVEMENT OF ADHESION OF DIAMOND-LIKE COATINGS USING WHISKER-COMPOSITE TECHNIQUES

The adhesion of diamond-like coatings has been improved significantly using whisker-composite techniques. The diamond-like coatings, with 78 % diamond bonding (sp(3)) measured with electron spectroscopy for chem ical analysis and atomic purity better than 99 at.%, were prepared on samples etched by argon sputtering using a filtered pulsed are dischar ge plasma accelerator. The thickness of the coatings was 2 mu m. The a dhesion of the whisker-composite samples measured using conventional s cratch and pin-on-disc test methods was remarkably better than that me asured for reference samples without whiskers, although in both cases a high energy carbon ion pretreatment was used to produce the diffused intermediate layer.