Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a class of
amorphous carbon Amorphous carbon is free, reactive carbon that has no crystalline structure. Amorphous carbon materials may be stabilized by terminating dangling-π bonds with hydrogen. As with other amorphous solids, some short-range order can be observed. Amor ...
material that displays some of the typical properties of
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
. DLC is usually applied as coatings to other materials that could benefit from such properties.
DLC exists in seven different forms. All seven contain significant amounts of sp
3 hybridized carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
atoms. The reason that there are different types is that even diamond can be found in two crystalline
polytypes
In materials science, polymorphism describes the existence of a solid material in more than one form or crystal structure. Polymorphism is a form of isomerism. Any crystalline material can exhibit the phenomenon. Allotropy refers to polymorphism ...
. The more common one uses a
cubic lattice, while the less common one,
lonsdaleite
Lonsdaleite (named in honour of Kathleen Lonsdale), also called hexagonal diamond in reference to the crystal structure, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice, as opposed to the cubical lattice of conventional diamond. It is found i ...
, has a
hexagonal lattice
The hexagonal lattice or triangular lattice is one of the five two-dimensional Bravais lattice types. The symmetry category of the lattice is wallpaper group p6m. The primitive translation vectors of the hexagonal lattice form an angle of 120° ...
. By mixing these polytypes at the nanoscale, DLC coatings can be made that at the same time are amorphous, flexible, and yet purely sp
3 bonded "diamond". The hardest, strongest, and slickest is tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C).
Ta-C can be considered to be the "pure" form of DLC, since it consists almost entirely of sp
3 bonded carbon atoms. Fillers such as
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
, graphitic sp
2 carbon, and metals are used in the other 6 forms to reduce production expenses or to impart other desirable properties.
The various forms of DLC can be applied to almost any material that is compatible with a vacuum environment.
History
In 2006, the market for outsourced DLC coatings was estimated as about €30,000,000 in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
.
In 2011, researchers at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
announced a super-hard amorphous diamond under conditions of ultrahigh pressure. The diamond lacks the
crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
line structure of
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
but has the light weight characteristic of
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
.
In 2021, Chinese researchers announced AM-III, a super-hard,
fullerene
A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecule consists of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecule may be a hollow sphere, ...
-based form of
amorphous carbon Amorphous carbon is free, reactive carbon that has no crystalline structure. Amorphous carbon materials may be stabilized by terminating dangling-π bonds with hydrogen. As with other amorphous solids, some short-range order can be observed. Amor ...
. It is also a semi-conductor with a bandgap range of 1.5 to 2.2 eV. The material demonstrated a hardness of 113
GPa
Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements for varying levels of achievements in a course. Grades can be assigned as letters (usually A through F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), as a percentage, or as a numbe ...
on a Vickers hardness test vs diamonds rate at around 70 to 100 GPa. It was hard enough to scratch the surface of a diamond.
Distinction from natural and synthetic diamond
Naturally occurring diamond is almost always found in the crystalline form with a purely
cubic orientation of sp
3 bonded carbon atoms. Sometimes there are lattice defects or inclusions of atoms of other elements that give color to the stone, but the lattice arrangement of the carbons remains cubic and bonding is purely sp
3. The internal energy of the cubic polytype is slightly lower than that of the
hexagonal form and growth rates from molten material in both natural and bulk
synthetic diamond
Lab-grown diamond (LGD; also called laboratory-grown, laboratory-created, man-made, artisan-created, artificial, synthetic, or cultured diamond) is diamond that is produced in a controlled technological process (in contrast to naturally formed ...
production methods are slow enough that the lattice structure has time to grow in the lowest energy (cubic) form that is possible for sp
3 bonding of carbon atoms. In contrast, DLC is typically produced by processes in which high energy precursive carbons (e.g. in
plasmas, in filtered
cathodic arc deposition {{Short description, Type of physical vapor deposition technique
Cathodic arc deposition or Arc-PVD is a physical vapor deposition technique in which an electric arc is used to vaporize material from a cathode target. The vaporized material then ...
, in
sputter deposition and in
ion beam deposition
Ion beam deposition (IBD) is a process of applying materials to a target through the application of an ion beam.
Ion beam deposition setup with mass separator
An ion beam deposition apparatus typically consists of an ion source, ion optics, and ...
) are rapidly cooled or quenched on relatively cold surfaces. In those cases cubic and hexagonal lattices can be randomly intermixed, layer by atomic layer, because there is no time available for one of the crystalline geometries to grow at the expense of the other before the atoms are "frozen" in place in the material.
Amorphous
In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid, glassy solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal.
Etymology
The term comes from the Greek ''a'' ("wi ...
DLC coatings can result in materials that have no long-range crystalline order. Without long range order there are no brittle fracture planes, so such coatings are flexible and conformal to the underlying shape being coated, while still being as hard as diamond. In fact this property has been exploited to study atom-by-atom wear at the nanoscale in DLC.
Production
There are several methods for producing DLC, which rely on the lower density of sp
2 than sp
3 carbon. So the application of pressure, impact,
catalysis
Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...
, or some combination of these at the atomic scale can force sp
2 bonded carbon atoms closer together into sp
3 bonds.
This must be done vigorously enough that the atoms cannot simply spring back apart into separations characteristic of sp
2 bonds. Usually techniques either combine such a compression with a push of the new cluster of sp
3 bonded carbon deeper into the coating so that there is no room for expansion back to separations needed for sp
2 bonding; or the new cluster is buried by the arrival of new carbon destined for the next cycle of impacts. It is reasonable to envisage the process as a "hail" of projectiles that produce localized, faster,
nanoscale
The nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1–100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The nanoscopic scale is (roughly speaking) a lo ...
versions of the classic combinations of heat and pressure that produce natural and synthetic diamond. Because they occur independently at many places across the surface of a growing film or coating, they tend to produce an analog of a
cobblestone
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings.
Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...
street with the cobbles being nodules or clusters of sp
3 bonded carbon. Depending upon the particular "recipe" being used, there are cycles of deposition of carbon and impact or continuous proportions of new carbon arriving and projectiles conveying the impacts needed to force the formation of the sp
3 bonds. As a result, ''ta-C'' may have the structure of a cobblestone street, or the nodules may "melt together" to make something more like a
sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...
or the cobbles may be so small as to be nearly invisible to imaging. A classic "medium" morphology for a ''ta-C'' film is shown in the figure.
Properties
As implied by the name, diamond-like carbon (DLC), the value of such coatings accrues from their ability to provide some of the properties of diamond to surfaces of almost any material. The primary desirable qualities are hardness, wear resistance, and slickness (DLC film
friction coefficient
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:
*Dry friction is a force that opposes the relative lateral motion of t ...
against polished steel ranges from 0.05 to 0.20 ). DLC properties highly depends on
plasma processing
Plasma processing is a plasma-based material processing technology that aims at modifying the chemical and physical properties of a surface.
Plasma processing techniques include:
*Plasma activation
* Plasma ashing
*Plasma cleaning
*Plasma electr ...
deposition parameters, like effect of
bias voltage
In electronics, biasing is the setting of DC (direct current) operating conditions (current and voltage) of an active device in an amplifier. Many electronic devices, such as diodes, transistors and vacuum tubes, whose function is processing ...
, DLC
coating thickness, interlayer thickness, etc. Moreover, the heat treatment also change the coating properties such as hardness, toughness and wear rate.
However, which properties are added to a surface and to what degree depends upon which of the 7 forms are applied, and further upon the amounts and types of diluents added to reduce the cost of production. In 2006 the Association of German Engineers,
VDI, the largest engineering association in Western Europe issued an authoritative report VDI2840 in order to clarify the existing multiplicity of confusing terms and trade names. It provides a unique classification and nomenclature for diamond-like-carbon (DLC) and diamond films. It succeeded in reporting all information necessary to identify and to compare different DLC films which are offered on the market. Quoting from that document:
These 3">p3bonds can occur not only with crystals - in other words, in solids with long-range order - but also in amorphous solids where the atoms are in a random arrangement. In this case there will be bonding only between a few individual atoms and not in a long-range order extending over a large number of atoms. The bond types have a considerable influence on the material properties of amorphous carbon films. If the sp2 type is predominant the film will be softer, if the sp3 type is predominant the film will be harder.
A secondary determinant of quality was found to be the fractional content of hydrogen. Some of the production methods involve hydrogen or
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
as a catalyst and a considerable percentage of hydrogen can remain in the finished DLC material. When it is recalled that the soft plastic,
polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...
is made from carbon that is bonded purely by the diamond-like sp
3 bonds, but also includes chemically bonded hydrogen, it is not surprising to learn that fractions of hydrogen remaining in DLC films degrade them almost as much as do residues of sp
2 bonded carbon. The VDI2840 report confirmed the utility of locating a particular DLC material onto a 2-dimensional map on which the X-axis described the fraction of hydrogen in the material and the Y-axis described the fraction of sp
3 bonded carbon atoms. The highest quality of diamond-like properties was affirmed to be correlated with the proximity of the map
point plotting
Point plotting is an elementary mathematical skill required in analytic geometry. Invented by René Descartes and originally used to locate positions on military maps, this skill is now assumed of everyone who wants to locate grid 7A on any map.
...
the (X,Y) coordinates of a particular material to the upper left corner at (0,1), namely 0% hydrogen and 100% sp
3 bonding. That "pure" DLC material is ''ta-C'' and others are approximations that are degraded by diluents such as hydrogen, sp
2 bonded carbon, and metals. Valuable properties of materials that are ''ta-C'', or nearly ''ta-C'' follow.
Hardness
Within the "cobblestones", nodules, clusters, or "sponges" (the volumes in which local bonding is sp
3) bond angles may be distorted from those found in either pure cubic or hexagonal lattices because of intermixing of the two. The result is internal (compressive) stress that can appear to add to the hardness measured for a sample of DLC. Hardness is often measured by
nanoindentation
Nanoindentation, also called instrumented indentation testing, is a variety of indentation hardness tests applied to small volumes. Indentation is perhaps the most commonly applied means of testing the mechanical properties of materials. The nanoi ...
methods in which a finely pointed stylus of natural diamond is forced into the surface of a specimen. If the sample is so thin that there is only a single layer of nodules, then the stylus may enter the DLC layer between the hard cobblestones and push them apart without sensing the hardness of the sp
3 bonded volumes. Measurements would be low. Conversely, if the probing stylus enters a film thick enough to have several layers of nodules so it cannot be spread laterally, or if it enters on top of a cobblestone in a single layer, then it will measure not only the real hardness of the diamond bonding, but an apparent hardness even greater because the internal compressive stress in those nodules would provide further resistance to penetration of the material by the stylus.
Nanoindentation
Nanoindentation, also called instrumented indentation testing, is a variety of indentation hardness tests applied to small volumes. Indentation is perhaps the most commonly applied means of testing the mechanical properties of materials. The nanoi ...
measurements have reported hardness as great as 50% more than values for natural crystalline diamond. Since the stylus is blunted in such cases or even broken, actual numbers for hardness that exceed that of natural diamond are meaningless. They only show that the hard parts of an optimal ''ta-C'' material will break natural diamond rather than the inverse. Nevertheless, from a practical viewpoint it does not matter how the resistance of a DLC material is developed, it can be harder than natural diamond in usage. One method of testing the coating hardness is by means of the
Persoz pendulum.
Bonding of DLC coatings
The same internal stress that benefits the hardness of DLC materials makes it difficult to bond such coatings to the substrates to be protected. The internal stresses try to "pop" the DLC coatings off of the underlying samples. This challenging downside of extreme hardness is answered in several ways, depending upon the particular "art" of the production process. The most simple is to exploit the natural chemical bonding that happens in cases in which incident carbon ions supply the material to be impacted into sp
3 bonded carbon atoms and the impacting energies that are compressing carbon volumes condensed earlier. In this case the first carbon ions will impact the surface of the item to be coated. If that item is made of a
carbide
In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece.
Interstitial / Metallic carbides
The carbides of the ...
-forming substance such as
Ti or
Fe in
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
a layer of carbide will be formed that is later bonded to the DLC grown on top of it. Other methods of bonding include such strategies as depositing intermediate layers that have atomic spacings that grade from those of the substrate to those characteristic of sp
3 bonded carbon. In 2006 there were as many successful recipes for bonding DLC coatings as there were sources of DLC.
Tribology
DLC coatings are often used to prevent wear due to their excellent
tribological
Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on many academic field ...
properties. DLC is very resistant to abrasive and adhesive wear making it suitable for use in applications that experience extreme contact pressure, both in rolling and sliding contact. DLC is often used to prevent wear on razor blades and metal cutting tools, including lathe inserts and
milling cutter
Milling cutters are cutting tools typically used in milling machines or machining centres to perform milling operations (and occasionally in other machine tools). They remove material by their movement within the machine (e.g., a ball nose mill ...
s. DLC is used in
bearings,
cam
Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...
s, cam followers, and shafts in the automobile industry. The coatings reduce wear during the 'break-in' period, where drive train components may be starved for
lubrication
Lubrication is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and wear and tear in a contact between two surfaces. The study of lubrication is a discipline in the field of tribology.
Lubrication mechanisms such as fluid-lubric ...
.
DLCs may also be used in
chameleon coatings that are designed to prevent wear during launch, orbit, and re-entry of land-launched space vehicles. DLC provides lubricity at ambient atmosphere and at vacuum unlike graphite, which requires moisture to be lubricious. Isolated carbon particles embedded diamond-like carbon coatings are the recent development in this area. The wear rate of amorphous DLC can be reduced up to 60% by embedding isolated carbon nanoparticles embedded simultaneous to DLC deposition. The isolated particles were in-situ created through rapid plasma quenching with Helium pulses.
Despite the favorable tribological properties of DLC it must be used with caution on ferrous metals. If it is used at higher temperatures, the substrate or counter face may
carburize
Carburising, carburizing (chiefly American English), or carburisation is a heat treatment process in which iron or steel absorbs carbon while the metal is heated in the presence of a carbon-bearing material, such as charcoal or carbon monoxide. ...
, which could lead to loss of function due to a change in hardness. The final, end use temperature of a coated component should be kept below the temperature at which a PVC DLC coating is applied.
Electrical
If a DLC material is close enough to ''ta-C'' on plots of bonding ratios and hydrogen content it can be an
insulator with a high value of resistivity. Perhaps more interesting is that if prepared in the "medium" cobblestone version such as shown in the above figure, electricity is passed through it by a mechanism of hopping
conductivity
Conductivity may refer to:
*Electrical conductivity, a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current
**Conductivity (electrolytic), the electrical conductivity of an electrolyte in solution
** Ionic conductivity (solid state), ele ...
. In this type of conduction of electricity the electrons move by
quantum mechanical tunneling
Quantum tunnelling, also known as tunneling (American English, US) is a quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical phenomenon whereby a wavefunction can propagate through a potential barrier.
The transmission through the barrier can be finite and de ...
between pockets of conductive material isolated in an insulator. The result is that such a process makes the material something like a
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
. Further research on electrical properties is needed to explicate such conductivity in ''ta-C'' in order to determine its practical value. However, a different electrical property of
emissivity
The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation. Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation that most commonly includes both visible radiation (light) and infrared radiation, which is n ...
has been shown to occur at unique levels for ''ta-C''. Such high values allow for electrons to be emitted from ''ta-C'' coated electrodes into vacuum or into other solids with application of modest levels of applied voltage. This has supported important advances in medical technology.
Applications
Applications of DLC typically utilize the ability of the material to reduce abrasive wear. Tooling components, such as
endmill
An end mill is a type of milling cutter, a cutting tool used in industrial milling applications. It is distinguished from the drill bit in its application, geometry, and manufacture. While a drill bit can only cut in the axial direction, most m ...
s,
drill bit
Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order ...
s,
die
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
s and
mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...
s often use DLC in this manner. DLC is also used in the engines of modern supersport motorcycles, Formula 1 racecars,
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
vehicles, and as a coating on
hard-disk platters and hard-disk read heads to protect against
head crash
A head crash is a hard-disk failure that occurs when a read–write head of a hard disk drive makes contact with its rotating platter, slashing its surface and permanently damaging its magnetic media. It is most often caused by a sudden seve ...
es. Virtually all of the multi-bladed razors used for wet shaving have the edges coated with hydrogen-free DLC to reduce friction, preventing abrasion of sensitive skin. It is also being used as a coating by some weapon manufacturers/custom gunsmiths. Some forms have been certified in the EU for food service and find extensive uses in the high-speed actions involved in processing novelty foods such as
potato chip
A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or appe ...
s and in guiding material flows in packaging foodstuffs with plastic wraps. DLC coats the cutting edges of tools for the high-speed, dry shaping of difficult exposed surfaces of wood and
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
, for example on automobile dashboards.
The wear, friction, and electrical properties of DLC make it an appealing material for medical applications. DLC has proved to have excellent bio-compatibility as well. This has enabled many medical procedures, such as
Percutaneous coronary intervention
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. The process involves combining coronary angioplasty with stenting, which is the ...
employing
brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where a sealed radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. ''Brachy'' is Greek for short. Brachytherapy is commonly used as an effective treatment for cervical, prost ...
to benefit from the unique electrical properties of DLC. At low voltages and low temperatures electrodes coated with DLC can emit enough electrons to be arranged into disposable, micro-X-ray tubes as small as the radioactive seeds that are introduced into arteries or tumors in conventional
brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where a sealed radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. ''Brachy'' is Greek for short. Brachytherapy is commonly used as an effective treatment for cervical, prost ...
. The same dose of prescribed radiation can be applied ''from the inside, out'' with the additional possibility to switch on and off the radiation in the prescribed pattern for the X-rays being used. DLC has proved to be an excellent coating to prolong the life of and reduce complications with replacement hip joints and artificial knees. It also has been successfully applied to coronary artery stents, reducing the incidence of thrombosis. The implantable human heart pump can be considered the ultimate biomedical application where DLC coating is used on blood contacting surfaces of the key components of the device.
Environmental benefits of durable products
The increase in lifetime of articles coated with DLC that wear out because of abrasion can be described by the formula ''f = (g)
µ'', where ''g'' is a number that characterizes the type of DLC, the type of abrasion, the substrate material and μ is the thickness of the DLC coating in μm. For "low-impact" abrasion (pistons in cylinders, impellers in pumps for sandy liquids, etc.), ''g'' for pure ''ta-C'' on 304 stainless steel is 66. This means that one-μm thickness (that is ≈5% of the thickness of a human hair-end) would increase service lifetime for the article it coated from a week to over a year and two-μm thickness would increase it from a week to 85 years. These are measured values; though in the case of the 2 μm coating the lifetime was extrapolated from the last time the sample was evaluated until the testing apparatus itself wore out.
There are environmental arguments that a sustainable economy ought to encourage products to be engineered for durability—in other words, to have planned durability (the opposite of planned obsolescence).
Currently there are about 100 outsource vendors of DLC coatings that are loaded with amounts of graphite and hydrogen and so give much lower g-numbers than 66 on the same substrates.
See also
*
Chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films.
In typical CVD, the wafer (substra ...
*
Cathodic arc deposition {{Short description, Type of physical vapor deposition technique
Cathodic arc deposition or Arc-PVD is a physical vapor deposition technique in which an electric arc is used to vaporize material from a cathode target. The vaporized material then ...
*
Poly(hydridocarbyne)
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
"Diamond-like carbon coatings"at AZo Materials
Bibliography of early work on DLC
"Diamond-like tip better than the best" Recent applications of DLC at the nanoscale (1 March 2010)
Allotropes of carbon
Coatings
Superhard materials
Thin film deposition