Raman Spectroscopy of DLCa-Si Bilayer Film Prepared by Pulsed Filtered Cathodic Arc

Abstract EN

DLC/a-Si bilayer film was deposited on germanium substrate.

The a-Si layer, a seed layer, was firstly deposited on the substrate using DC magnetron sputtering and DLC layer was then deposited on the a-Si layer using pulsed filtered cathodic arc method.

The bilayer films were deposited with different DLC/a-Si thickness ratios, including 2/2, 2/6, 4/4, 6/2, and 9/6.

The effect of DLC/a-Si thickness ratios on the sp3 content of DLC was analyzed by Raman spectroscopy.

The results show that a-Si layer has no effect on the structure of DLC film.

Furthermore, the upper shift in G wavenumber and the decrease in ID/IG inform that sp3 content of the film is directly proportional to DLC thickness.

The plot modified from the three-stage model informed that the structural characteristics of DLC/a-Si bilayer films are located close to the tetrahedral amorphous carbon.

This information may be important for analyzing and developing bilayer protective films for future hard disk drive.