Interface design for a-C:H film with super long wear life in high vacuum environment

Abstract

In the present work, a special interface between substrate and carbon films is introduced to prolong wear life of a-C:H film in high vacuum, and the optimized film exhibits an ultra-long life of 2.6×105 cycles, corresponding to 9796.8m at the normal load of 5N. Experimental results show that gradient interlayer significantly decreases internal stress, increases adhesion strength as well as improves interface fracture toughness, and then anti-wear ability shows a corresponding improvement. This study discloses that interface design plays important roles in determining tribological behavior of a-C:H film in vacuum, which provides a novel method for developing new generation space lubrication film.