Bonding in Ion-Implanted Diamond-Like Carbon Films Characterized by TEM Spectrum Lines and Energy-Filtered Imaging

Abstract

Many of the electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are determined by the amount of sp3 bonding. Correlations of bonding and properties are important in efforts to optimize coatings for specific applications. DLC thin films were grown at LANL by plasma deposition and subsequently ion implanted with N or Ar. Cross-sectioned TEM specimens were characterized with a Gatan imaging filter (GIF) interfaced to a LaB6 Philips CM30T at the ORNL SHaRE User Facility. For elemental distribution maps the following conditions were used: incident beam divergence α = 2.9 mrad, collection angle β = 4.8 mrad, slit width ΔE = 30 eV, exposure times of typically 5 s, 2x-binned 512×512 images, and TEM magnification ∼2000. The standard 3-window method was used for producing elemental maps with AE-r background extrapolation; 2-window jump-ratio images were also produced.