Role of Metallic Ni-Cr Dots on the Adhesion, Electrical, Optical and Mechanical Properties of Diamond-like Carbon Thin Films

The effect of thermally evaporated metallic Ni-Cr dots on the adhesion, electrical, optical and the mechanical properties of RF-PECVD grown diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films was investigated. The DLC films deposited over Ni-Cr dots containing substrates exhibited a strong adhesion to the substrate. The observed drastic increase in magnitude of the current and the decrease of optical band gap due to presence of Ni-Cr dots revealed a considerable improvement in their electrical and optical properties, respectively. Further, load versus displacement curves were employed to estimate the hardness (H), elastic modulus (E), plastic resistance parameter (H/E) and elastic recovery (ER). The values of H and E in Ni-Cr dots containing DLC films were found to be comparatively less than that of DLC films. Overall, Ni-Cr metal dots improved adhesion, optical and electrical properties of DLC films with a little deterioration in their mechanical properties (e.g. H, E, ER and H/E).