The protective properties of ultra-thin diamond like carbon films for high density magnetic storage devices

With the increase of magnetic storage density, the thickness of the protective diamond like carbon (DLC) film on the surfaces of head and disk is required as thin as possible. In this paper, the structure, mechanical properties and corrosion and oxidation resistance of ultra-thin DLC films are investigated. The ultra-thin DLC films were deposited by using filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. The exact thickness of the ultra-thin DLC film was determined by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Raman analysis indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film presents ta-C structure with high sp3 fraction. In the wear test, a diamond tip was used to simulate a single-asperity contact with the film surface and the wear marks were produced on the film surface. The wear depths decrease with film thickness increasing. If the film thickness was 1.4 nm or above, the wear depth was much lower than that of Si substrate. This indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm shows excellent wear resistance. Corrosion tests in water and oxidation tests in air were carried out to investigate the diffusion barrier effect of the ultra-thin DLC films. The results show that the DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm provides adequate coverage on the substrate and has good corrosion and oxidation resistance.