Triboemission of electrons, ions, and photons from diamondlike carbon films and generation of tribomicroplasma

A new unified concept of triboelectromagnetic phenomena for thin films is developed, introducing factors such as triboelectrified surface potential, electric resistivity of film to study tribocharging, ttibomicroplasma generation, triboemission, and chemi-emission phenomena in film. Triboelectromagnetic phenomena are investigated in a tribosystem of a diamond pin sliding on a diamondlike carbon (DLC) film simulating a tribosystem of a hard disk drive (HDD) in dry sliding and PFPE lubrication. Results show that tribomicroplasma generation increases linearly with the triboelectrified surface potential, which also increases linearly with the electric resistivity of film. Nitrogenated carbon films give rise to a lower triboplasma generation nature than hydrogenated carbon films because of the lower electric resistivity of the former. All the observed phenomena can be explained by the new unified model of triboelectromagnetic phenomena for films. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.