Nano-mechanical properties of nano-gold/DLC composite thin films

¹ Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette 47907, USA
² Department of Instrumentation Science, USIC Building, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
³ Mechanical Property Evaluation Section, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata 700 032, India

^a e-mail: msakp2002@yahoo.co.in

Received: 21 April 2014
Revised: 2 May 2014
Accepted: 15 September 2014
Published online: 15 October 2014

Abstract

Diamond-like-Carbon composite films, with embedded gold nanoparticles, were deposited onto glass substrates by using capacitively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition (CCP-CVD) technique. The volume fraction of the metal nanoparticles in the films as well as the size of the nanoparticles was varied by varying the percentage of argon in the methane + argon mixture during the deposition. Bonding environments in these films were obtained from Raman and GIXRD. The nanomechanical and nanotribological properties of the Au-DLC nanocomposite films were evaluated. In situ SPM imaging was utilized to depict deformation characteristics developed during the static and dynamic contact events. Influence of metal incorporation on the extent of sp²/sp³ hybridization and thereby on the nanomechanical and nanotribological properties of the DLC films was studied.