Preparation and investigation of diamond-like carbon stripper foils by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

Thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) stripper foils ∼5μg/cm2 in thickness were produced and evaluated as heavy-ion strippers for the Beijing HI-13 Tandem Accelerator. The DLC layers ∼4μg/cm2 in thickness were produced by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology onto glass slides coated with betaine–saccharose as releasing agent, which were previously covered with evaporated carbon layers ∼1μg/cm2 in thickness by the controlled ac arc-discharge method. Irradiation lifetimes of the DLC stripper foils were tested using the heavy-ion beams at the terminal of the Beijing HI-13 Tandem Accelerator, and compared with those of the standard carbon stripper foils made by the combined dc and ac arc-discharge method. The measurements indicate that the DLC stripper foils outlast the standard combined dc and ac arc-discharge carbon stripper foils by a factor of at least 13 and 4 for the 197Au− (∼9MeV, ∼1μA) and 63Cu− (∼9MeV, ∼1μA) ion beams, respectively. The structure and properties of the DLC foils deposited onto silicon substrates by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology were also evaluated and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The scanning electron microscopy images show that the DLC foils contain hardly droplets through the double 90° filters. The X-ray photoelectron spectrum indicates that sp3 bonds of the DLC foils exceed 70%. The integral intensity ratio of the D peak to the G peak (ID/IG)(ID/IG) measured by the Raman spectroscopy is 0.78.