Wj. Meng et al., Inductively coupled plasma assisted deposition and mechanical properties of metal-free and Ti-containing hydrocarbon coatings, J APPL PHYS, 87(6), 2000, pp. 2840-2848
Metal-free amorphous hydrocarbon (a-C:H) and Ti-containing hydrocarbon (Ti-
C:H) coatings have been synthesized in a hybrid chemical vapor deposition (
CVD)/physical vapor deposition (PVD) system which combines inductively coup
led plasma (ICP) and sputter deposition. a-C:H coatings have been fabricate
d by ICP assisted CVD in inert/hydrocarbon gas mixtures while Ti-C:H coatin
gs have been fabricated by ICP assisted magnetron sputtering of Ti in inert
/hydrocarbon gas mixtures. We present results of structural characterizatio
n and mechanical property measurements on these a-C:H and Ti-C:H coatings.
In particular, the influence of hydrogen on the coating mechanical properti
es is probed experimentally. We show that hydrogen significantly influences
the mechanical properties of a-C:H and Ti-C:H coatings and needs to be con
sidered for a full understanding of the mechanical properties of Ti-C:H coa
tings. Our results demonstrate that combining ICP with sputter deposition m
akes a versatile CVD/PVD tool capable of depositing metal-free and metal-co
ntaining hydrocarbon coatings with widely varying microstructures and mecha
nical properties. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)05
406-2].