Comprehensive study on the properties of multilayered amorphous carbon films

Amorphous carbon (a-C) multilayered films consisting of sequential layers r ich in sp(2) (A) and sp(3) (B) content have been developed by magnetron spu ttering. We study here the effect of thickness d of the A layer in developi ng stable thick films with controllable stress and elastic properties. In s itu spectroscopic ellipsometry is used to calculate the thickness and the c omposition of the individual lavers. The latter were compared with those ob tained by depth profiling X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which also prov ides the different chemical bonding of the multilayers in depth. The stress and hardness of the deposited a-C films were found to be related to the th ickness of the A(j) layers and the relative ratio d(Aj)/d(B) of thicknesses . The possible mechanisms for the stress control, stability and enhancement of elastic properties of multilayered a-C films are discussed. (C) 2000 El sevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.