Spectroscopic studies on DLC/TM (Cr, Ag, Ti, Ni) multilayers

The hydrogen-free diamond-like carbon (DLC) films with transition metal (TM = Cr, Ag, Ti, Ni) interlayer (bilayer and multilayer) were deposited on to stainless steel and silicon substrates using pulsed laser deposition technique. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) confirmed that the films were hydrogen free. Incorporation of chromium inter layer reduced the stress value by about 3 GPa as determined by micro Raman spectroscopy. Incorporation of the TM inter layer enhanced the photoluminescence (PL) intensity as compared to the monolithic DLC films. The optical band gap determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry for DLC/TM films was found to be in the range of 1.56–1.67 eV.

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► Synthesis of hydrogen free DLC films by Pulsed Laser Deposition on AISI 304 and Si substrates.
► Novel multilayer architecture with transition metal (Ag, Cr, Ni and Ti) interlayers was introduced.
► Micro-Raman, PL and spectroscopic ellipsometric studies were used to study the properties.
► Enhanced PL intensity and reduced residual stress was observed.