Influence of particulate on surface energy and mechanical property of diamond-like carbon films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract We report a detailed structural study of particulate laden diamond-like carbon (DLC) films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and its influence on surface energy and mechanical properties. A detailed analysis of various parameters such as: Dispersion (G), I(D)/I(G), T-peak position and FWHM(G) obtained from UV Raman spectroscopy for flat and particulate region of all DLC specimens indicate that the vibrational properties vary in both the regions depending on growth mechanism and modification of particulates in the plasma, respectively. The influence of these heterogeneous vibrational properties on surface energy and hardness is extensively studied by contact angle measurement and nano-indentation, respectively. DLC surface energy is observed to be influenced by sp 2 cluster size, sp 3 content, bond length and angle disorder of sp 2 clusters found in the particulate regions, whereas indentation hardness ( H ) and modulus ( E ) of DLC films at 0.3 mN applied indentation load follows the evolution of sp 3 content in the flat region.