Advertisement

An adhesion analysis of thin carbon films deposited onto curved and flat Ti6Al4V substrates using rf magnetron sputtering and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition techniques

  • Jonathan Laumer
  • Stephen K. O’LearyEmail author
Article
First Online:
  • 8 Downloads

Abstract

By depositing thin-films of carbon onto both curved and flat Ti6Al4V substrates, and then performing a Scotch tape adhesion test on the resultant films, we assess the role that the geometry associated with the underlying substrate plays in shaping the quality of the adhesion of the thin-films of carbon. Both rf magnetron sputtering and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition techniques are employed for the purposes of this study. For the specific case of rf magnetron sputtering, we find that thin-films of carbon deposited onto curved Ti6Al4V substrates adhere better to the underlying substrate than those deposited onto flat Ti6Al4V substrates. In contrast, for the case of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, the thin-films of carbon deposited onto curved Ti6Al4V substrates exhibit the same adhesion quality as those deposited onto flat Ti6Al4V substrates. Through the use of Raman spectroscopy, for the specific case of rf magnetron sputtering, it is shown that there is very little difference in the underlying chemistry of the deposited thin-films of carbon. This suggests that it is the geometry of the substrate itself that is playing a role in determining the nature of the adhesion for the case of rf magnetron sputtering. We suspect that the physical vapor deposition nature of rf magnetron sputtering may be responsible for this observed difference, plasma enhanced chemical vapor depositions being more shaped by the chemical reactions at the growth surface.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

The two authors wish to thank Dr. Andrew Jirasek, of The University of British Columbia, for his technical assistance with the Raman measurements. Financial assistance from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and MITACS is gratefully acknowledged.

References

  1. 1.
    S. Aisenberg, R. Chabot, Ion-beam deposition of thin films of diamondlike carbon. J. Appl. Phys. 42, 2953–2958 (1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    J. Robertson, Properties of diamond-like carbon. Surf. Coat. Technol. 50, 185–203 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    A. Grill, Diamond-like carbon: state of the art. Diam. Relat. Mater. 8, 428–434 (1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. 4.
    N. Sakamoto, Y. Kogo, T. Yasuno, J. Taniguchi, I. Miyamoto, Analysis on microstructure of interface layer in DLC/Si structures produced by FIB-CVD. Diam. Relat. Mater. 17, 1706–1709 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    J. Laumer, S.K. O’Leary, A scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis of the substrate-to-thin-film-surface cross-section of thin carbon films deposited on curved Ti6Al4V substrates with and without silicon adhesion layers. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 442, 40–43 (2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    M. Chhowalla, J. Robertson, C.W. Chen, S.R.P. Silva, C.A. Davis, G.A.J. Amaratunga, W.I. Milne, Influence of ion energy and substrate temperature on the optical and electronic properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films. J. Appl. Phys. 81, 139–145 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    M. Čekada, M. Kahn, P. Pelicon, Z. Siketić, I.B. Radović, W. Waldhauser, S. Paskvale, Analysis of nitrogen-doped ion-beam-deposited hydrogenated diamond-like carbon films using ERDA/RBS, TOF-ERDA and Raman spectroscopy. Surf. Coat. Technol. 211, 72–75 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. 8.
    C.-C. Chou, Y.-Y. Wu, J.-W. Lee, J.-C. Huang, C.-H. Yeh, Mechanical properties of fluorinated DLC and Si interlayer on a Ti biomedical alloy. Thin Solid Films 528, 136–142 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. 9.
    J.G. Buijnsters, P. Shankar, W. Fleischer, W.J.P. van Enckevort, J.J. Schermer, J.J. ter Meulen, CVD diamond deposition on steel using arc-plated chromium nitride interlayers. Diam. Relat. Mater. 11, 536–544 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    E. Gariboldi, Drilling a magnesium alloy using PVD coated twist drills. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 134, 287–295 (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    S. Bhowmick, A.T. Alpas, The performance of hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated diamond-like carbon tool coatings during the dry drilling of 319 Al. Int. J. Mach. Tool. Manuf. 48, 802–814 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. 12.
    J.-G. Zhang, B. Shen, F.-H. Sun, Fabrication and drilling tests of chemical vapor deposition diamond coated drills in machining carbon fiber reinforced plastics. J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.) 18, 394–400 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. 13.
    G. Capote, E.J. Corat, V.J. Trava-Airoldi, Deposition of amorphous hydrogenated carbon films on steel surfaces through the enhanced asymmetrical modified bipolar pulsed-DC PECVD method. Surf. Coat. Technol. 260, 133–138 (2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    A.L. Thomann, C. Charles, P. Brault, C. Laure, R. Boswell, Enhanced deposition rates in plasma sputter deposition. Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 7, 245–251 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.
    B.H. Lung, M.J. Chiang, M.H. Hon, Effect of gradient a-SiC\(_x\) interlayer on adhesion of DLC films. Mater. Chem. Phys. 72, 163–166 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. 16.
    G. Fedosenko, A. Schwabedissen, J. Engemann, E. Braca, L. Valentini, J.M. Kenny, Pulsed PECVD deposition of diamond-like carbon films. Diam. Relat. Mater. 11, 1047–1052 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    J. Kim, C. Lee, Dependence of the physical properties DLC films by PECVD on the Ar gas addition. J. Korean Phys. Soc. 42, S956–S960 (2003)Google Scholar
  18. 18.
    K. Bobzin, N. Bagcivan, N. Goebbels, K. Yilmaz, Effect of the substrate geometry on plasma synthesis of DLC coatings. Plasma Process. Polym. 6, S425–S428 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. 19.
    N. Nelson, R.T. Rakowski, J. Franks, P. Woolliams, P. Weaver, B.J. Jones, The effect of substrate geometry and surface orientation on the film structure of DLC deposited using PECVD. Surf. Coat. Technol. 254, 73–78 (2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. 20.
    S.J. Dowey, K.M. Read, K.S. Fancey, A. Matthews, The penetration into blind holes of diamond-like carbon films produced by r.f. plasma-assisted CVD. Surf. Coat. Technol. 74–75, 710–716 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. 21.
    C.Z. Zhang, Y. Tang, Y.S. Li, Q. Yang, Adhesion enhancement of diamond-like carbon thin films on Ti alloys by incorporation of nanodiamond particles. Thin Solid Films 528, 111–115 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. 22.
    L.F. Bonetti, G. Capote, L.V. Santos, E.J. Corat, V.J. Trava-Airoldi, Adhesion studies of diamond-like carbon films deposited on Ti6Al4V substrate with a silicon interlayer. Thin Solid Films 515, 375–379 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. 23.
    C.-C. Chou, Y.-Y. Wu, J.-W. Lee, C.-H. Yeh, J.-C. Huang, Characterization and haemocompatibility of fluorinated DLC and Si interlayer on Ti6Al4V. Surf. Coat. Technol. 231, 418–422 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. 24.
    J. Laumer, R.S.K. Selvakumar, S.K. O’Leary, A Raman spectroscopic analysis of thin carbon films deposited onto curved Ti6Al4V substrates with and without silicon adhesion layers. Diam. Relat. Mater. 70, 59–64 (2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. 25.
    J. Laumer, S.K. O’Leary, An approach to the spectral smoothing of Raman data applied to the specific case of thin-film carbon. J. Mater. Sci.: Mater. Electron. 29, 10026–10036 (2018)Google Scholar
  26. 26.
    B. Daudin, P. Martin, MeV ion beam enhanced adhesion of Au films on alumina. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 34, 181–187 (1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. 27.
    U.R. Mhatre, A.N. Kale, D.C. Kothari, P.M. Raole, M.K. Totalani, D. Kanjilal, A. Kulkarni, S.M. Kanetkar, S.B. Ogale, Adhesion improvement of diamond and other films after MeV ion irradiation. Vacuum 48, 999–1003 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. 28.
    J.G. Buijnsters, F.M. van Bouwelen, J.J. Schermer, W.J.P. van Enckevort, J.J. ter Meulen, Chemical vapour deposition of diamond on nitrided chromium using an oxyacetylene flame. Diam. Rel. Mater. 9, 341–345 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. 29.
    M. Hashizume, M. Hirashima, Sol-gel titania coating on unmodified and surface-modified polyimide films. J. Sol-Gel Sci. Technol. 62, 234–239 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. 30.
    M. Drdácký, J. Lesák, S. Rescic, Z. Slíz̆ková, P. Tiano, J. Valach, Standardization of peeling tests for assessing the cohesion and consolidation characteristics of historic stone surfaces. Mater. Struct. 45, 505–520 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. 31.
    M. Drdácký, J. Lesák, K. Niedoba, J. Valach, Peeling tests for assessing the cohesion and consolidation characteristics of mortar and render surfaces. Mater. Struct. 48, 1947–1963 (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. 32.
    S. Verma, V. Verma, Lithographic patterning of antibodies by direct lift-off and improved surface adhesion. Biofabrication 9, 015012 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. 33.
    P. Lemoine, J.P. Quinn, P. Maguire, J.A. McLaughlin, Comparing hardness and wear data for tetrahedral amorphous carbon and hydrogenated amorphous carbon thin films. Wear 257, 509–522 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. 34.
    M. Weber, K. Bewilogua, H. Thomsen, R. Wittorf, Influence of different interlayers and bias voltage on the properties of a-C:H and a-C:H:Me coatings prepared by reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering. Surf. Coat. Technol. 201, 1576–1582 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. 35.
    M. Keunecke, K. Weigel, K. Bewilogua, R. Cremer, H.-G. Fuss, Preparation and comparison of a-C:H coatings using reactive sputter techniques. Thin Solid Films 518, 1465–1469 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. 36.
    T. Li, L. Champougny, L. Bellon, Dynamic stiffness of the contact between a carbon nanotube and a flat substrate in a peeling geometry. J. Appl. Phys. 121, 094305 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. 37.
    R.A. Bernal, P. Chen, J.D. Schall, J.A. Harrison, Y.-R. Jeng, R.W. Carpick, Influence of chemical bonding on the variability of diamond-like carbon nanoscale adhesion. Carbon 128, 267–276 (2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. 38.
    J. Schwan, S. Ulrich, H. Roth, H. Ehrhardt, S.R.P. Silva, J. Robertson, R. Samlenski, R. Brenn, Tetrahedral amorphous carbon films prepared by magnetron sputtering and dc ion plating. J. Appl. Phys. 79, 1416–1422 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. 39.
    J.-S. Hsu, S.-S. Tzeng, C.-M. Kuo, Y.-J. Wu, Correlations between deposition parameters, mechanical properties, and microstructure for diamond-like carbon films synthesized by RF-PECVD. J. Chin. Inst. Eng. 36, 157–163 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. 40.
    I.Sh. Trakhtenberg, O.M. Bakunin, I.N. Korneyev, S.A. Plotnikov, A.P. Rubshtein, K. Uemura, Substrate surface temperature as a decisive parameter for diamond-like carbon film adhesion to polyethylene substrates. Diam. Relat. Mater. 9, 711–714 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. 41.
    V.N. Vasilets, A. Hirose, Q. Yang, A. Singh, R. Sammynaiken, M. Foursa, Y.M. Shulga, Characterization of doped diamond-like carbon films deposited by hot wire plasma sputtering of graphite. Appl. Phys. A 79, 2079–2084 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. 42.
    Z. Sun, C.H. Lin, Y.L. Lee, J.R. Shi, B.K. Tay, X. Shi, Effects on the deposition and mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon film using different inert gases in methane plasma. Thin Solid Films 377–378, 198–202 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. 43.
    L. Lajaunie, C. Pardanaud, C. Martin, P. Puech, C. Hu, M.J. Biggs, R. Arenal, Advanced spectroscopic analyses on a:C-H materials: revisiting the EELS characterization and its coupling with multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy. Carbon 112, 149–161 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. 44.
    Y.S. Zou, Q.M. Wang, H. Du, G.H. Song, J.Q. Xiao, J. Gong, C. Sun, L.S. Wen, Structural characterization of nitrogen doped diamond-like carbon films deposited by arc ion plating. Appl. Surf. Sci. 241, 295–302 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of EngineeringThe University of British ColumbiaKelownaCanada

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options