Ion Energy Tuning for Enhanced sp3 Carbon Fraction in Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Beam Deposited Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings: a Computational and Experimental Approach

TL;DR

This study combines computational simulations and experimental techniques to optimize ion energy for producing high-sp3 content diamond-like carbon coatings via electron cyclotron resonance ion beam deposition, achieving high-quality films at room temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ECR-IBD method for depositing high-sp3 DLC films and correlates ion energy with sp3 content using Monte Carlo simulations and spectroscopic analysis.

Findings

sp3 content ranges from 45% to 85% in deposited films

Monte Carlo simulations effectively predict optimal ion energies for high sp3 fraction

High-quality DLC coatings can be produced at room temperature without post-treatment

Abstract

A novel high-energy electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion beam deposition (IBD) technique was used to fabricate DLC films at different ion beam energies. The ratios of sp2/sp3 bonding in the DLC coatings were determined by Raman spectroscopy and XPS, with the confirmation of being hydrogen-free due to the lack of photoluminescence (PL) background in the Raman spectra. The results indicate that the sp3 percentage ranges from 45% - 85% for the ECR-IBD fabricated DLC films in this study. Monte-Carlo based SRIM simulation was used to extract the energy and angular distribution of the sputtered particles from the carbon target and correlate it to the highest sp3 fraction in the manufactured ECR-IBD DLCs. This study demonstrates a method of depositing DLC thin films under ambient conditions (room temperature with no post-annealing or additional bias voltage applied) which produces high-sp3 coatings (higher than those traditionally reported for other sputtering methods) suitable for applications where high quality DLC coatings are required.