Abstract
The effects of Ge incorporation into amorphous carbon films by ion implantation were studied, with special attention to the modifications of the friction properties. Amorphous carbon films were deposited by dc-sputtering and implanted, at room temperature, with Ge ions at an energy of 20 and 50 keV. The doses ranged from 10 13 to 10 17 atoms cm −2 and the ion fluence was 1 μA cm −2. The samples were analyzed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), infrared transmission spectroscopy (IR), and atomic force and lateral force microscopy (AFM and LFM, respectively). The presence of oxygen contamination was revealed by IR measurements. While the surface roughness always decreases with the increase of the ion dose, in the case of the samples implanted with 20-keV Ge + a decrease of the friction coefficient was observed with the increase of the ion dose. For samples implanted with 50-keV Ge +, the friction coefficient remained constant. These results can be understood as a combination of two effects: the formation of defects due to the ion implantation and the graphitization of the surface layers.
Published Version
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