Abstract

Amorphous hard carbon films formed by vacuum arc deposition are hydrogen-free, dense, and very hard. The properties of amorphous hard carbon films depend strongly on the energy of the incident ions. A technique which is called Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation can be applied to vacuum arc deposition of amorphous hard carbon films to influence the ion energy. We have studied the influence of the ion energy on the elastic modulus determined by an ultrasonic method, and have measured the optical gap for films with the highest sp³ content we have obtained so far with this deposition technique. The results show an elastic modulus close to that of diamond, and an optical gap of 2.1 eV which is much greater than for amorphous hard carbon films deposited by other techniques.