Elastic Properties of Diamond Like Carbon Thin Films: a Brillouin Scattering Study

Diamondlike carbon (DLC) thin films have been widely used as hard coatings in a variety of applications where increased wear resistance and hardness are required. Vacuum arc DLC films are among the hardest, with measured hardness values of up to 68 GPa. In our deposition process a repetitively pulsed bias voltage is applied to the substrate, which controls the energy of the incoming C ions. DLC chemical and mechanical properties are strongly affected by the energy of the depositing ions. In this paper, we relate the mechanical properties of these films to the deposition parameters, and describe our initial Brillouin scattering measurements of the elastic constants of monolithic DLC films. Evidence for bulk longitudinal and surface Rayleigh excitation in films with thickness of 50 and 500 nm has been observed. Since the DLC films are amorphous, they are modeled as isotropic solids and the elastic constants CII and C44 are derived.