Structural, mechanical and frictional properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon film by filtered cathodic vacuum arc system

Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) film was deposited on silicon coupons using a Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc system with a pre-implantation process, and then was investigated by some systematic analyses. The ta-C film shows a very smooth surface morphology and a dense cross-section texture, along with a gradient interlayer, about 0.5 μm between the substrate and ta-C film, also has a board distribution of asymmetric Raman intensity in the range of 1200–1700 cm− 1, centered at 1567 cm− 1. Microhardness and elastic modulus of ta-C film are 47.74 GPa and 298.46 GPa, respectively. Ta-C film also possesses a good adhesion, critical load (Lc) of 42 mN. Moreover, the ta-C film owns a low friction coefficient of about 0.15 in a long duration.