OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SPUTTERED CARBON-FILMS

Sputtered carbon films are widely used as protective overcoats for thin film disk media. Raman spectroscopy is nondestructive and relatively rapid and is well suited for the characterization of carbon films. Specific features in the Raman spectra are empirically correlated with the rates of specific types of mechanical wear for both hydrogenated and unhydrogenated films. This observation is interpreted in terms of a random covalent network, in which the mechanical performance of the film is determined by the nature of the bonding that links sp2-bonded domains.