Wear Resistance of C-N Thin Films Prepared by Ion-Beam-Assisted Deposition.

Abstract

C-N thin films were prepared with evaporation of C by electron beam and simultaneous bombardment of N ion beam. TiN films with the (111) and the (200) preferred orientations and the Si (100) wafer were used for substrates. The microstructures of C-N flms on TiN substrates were columnar structures similar to the microstructures of C-N films on Si substrate. The N/C content ratio of C-N film was determined to be up to 0.44. The friction coefficients against SiC and steel balls were 0.2-0.3 irrespective of substrate materials in both laboratory air and vacuum of 1.3 × 10-4 Pa. The films prepared with transport ratio of N/C=1 on the TiN (200) substrate showed good wear resistance in comparison with that on a Si substrate. The wear rate of this sample is 1/4 times less than that of DLC films. The difference in this wear behavior was attributed to higher adhesive strength due to the chemical bonding between the film and the TiN substrate.