Deposition of Ti-containing diamond-like carbon (DLC) films by PECVD technique

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been largely studied for their excellent mechanical properties and their high potential in many industrial applications. Although DLC films have poorer physical properties than diamond films, their lower thermal stability and high internal residual stress can be avoided with the incorporation of other elements, such as silicon, nitrogen and some metals. Nanostructured DLC coatings are usually deposited by a combined plasma assisted PVD/CVD technique and sputtering system. We have prepared Ti-containing DLC films deposited by plasma decomposition of CH4/H-2/Ar gas mixture with titanium isopropoxide (Ti[OCH2CH3](4)), as a metal precursor. The deposited films were found to be composed of amorphous titanium oxide and nanocrystalline titanium carbide, embedded in an amorphous hydrogenated (a-C:H) matrix (DLC). The TiC/TiO2 ratio in the DLC matrix was dependent on the process parameters. The films' composition was monitored as a function of gaseous fluxes. The structural and chemical-physical characterization has been performed by means of XRD and XPS techniques. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.