The influence of Cr and Ni doping on the microstructure of oxygen containing diamond-like carbon films

Abstract Non-hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) films doped with metals and oxygen were deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering. The influence of chromium and nickel on the surface morphology, elemental composition, bonding structure, adhesion force, optical transmittance and nanohardness of the films was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy, UV–VIS–NIR spectrophotometry and nanoindenter. The surface roughness was reduced with the addition of Cr (7.4 at. %) or Ni (8.9 at. %) into DLC films. The EDX measurements indicated that the addition of Cr increased the oxygen content by ~37%, while …