Structure and topographies of diamond-like carbon films produced on tungsten pre-implanted stainless steel substrate by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition

DLC films were deposited by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII-D) on steel substrates using different pretreatment procedures. Our results show that DLC films with good quality can be produced on the W pre-implanted steel substrates but it is not so on the untreated substrate or on the steel substrate with a W buffer layer. Moreover, altering the pre-implantation parameters gives rise to different distributions and amounts of W that influence the film growth at the latter stage. The final surface morphologies and structures of the deposited DLC films are also strongly affected by the pretreatment parameters.