• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.876-881
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• 2001

DLC(Diamond-like carbon) films possess high hardness, low friction coefficient, and good wear resistance. Due to these properties, DLC films have been used extensively in magnetic hard disk industry. The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of environmental condition on the tribological behavior of DLC coated hard disk. It is found that the tribological characteristics of DLC films are strongly affected by relative humidity and temperature. Specifically, the friction coefficient increases with increase in temperature at relative humidity of 50%. However, at 20% and 85% RH the effect of temperature was not significant. Also, the degree of wear could be observed using an AFM.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.247-247
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• 2010

DLC(diamond-like carbon)는 비정질 고상 탄소의 하나로 다이아몬드의 유사한 높은 경도, 내마모성, 윤활성, 전기절연성, 화학적 안정성을 가지고 있는 재료이다. 이러한 우수한 특성 때문에 DLC는 박막의 형태로 여러 종류의 보호코팅에 많이 응용되고 있다. DLC의 광범위한 응용에 있어 가장 큰 문제점은 박막이 갖는 높은 잔류응력과 이에 따른 기판과의 낮은 접착성으로 알려져 있다. 최근 연구에 의하면, plasma pre-treatment를 통해 PTFE기판에 DLC박막의 adhesion strength를 증진 시킬 수 있다고 보고하였다. 또한 ion beam technique를 이용하여 잔류응력을 줄이고 기판과의 접착력을 높일 수 있다는 것도 보고 되었다. 이에 기인하여 pre-treatment가 DLC합성에 잔류응력을 낮추고 기판과의 접착성을 높이는 효과를 보일 것이라고 가정하고 연구하였다. 본 연구에서 pre-treatment가 Diamond-like Carbon의 stainless steel 합성시 stress와 adhesion에 어떤 효과가 있는지 알아보기 위해, pre-treatment시와 synthesis of DLC film시에 13.56MHz 150W RF플라즈마 화학기상 증착 (RF-PECVD) 법을 통해 합성되었다. pre-treatment시에 H2(80 sccm), O2(10 sccm), N2(20 sccm)의 가스 종류를 다르게 하였고, synthesis of DLC film시에는 CH4 (20 sccm), H2 (80 sccm)가스의 유량을 고정하였다. 합성된 DLC 박막은 Contact Angle Analyze, Raman spectroscopy, Scratch tester를 이용하여 접촉각, D peak Position, G peak Position, ID/IG ratio, 접착력을 측정하였다.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1532-1535
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• 1996

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been prepared by a widely-used plasma CVD with an rf (13.56MHz) plasma of $CH_4$ gas. The hydrogen incorporated in DLC films plays an important role of determining the film properties, but its exact role has not been clear. In this study, the effect of hydrogen on the film properties of DLC has been examined by adding the hydrogen gas to the $CH_4$ gas during deposition and by exposing the prepared film to the hydrogen plasma. As the content of additive hydrogen gas increases, the density and hardness of the film increase, but the growth rate decreases. The FT-IR spectroscopy results show that the number of C-H bonds decreases with increasing the hydrogen gas. Also, the variation in the position of "G" and "D" peaks due to additive hydrogen, which has been measured by the Raman spectroscopy, indicates of $sp^3$ fraction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.368-376
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• 2003

In this research, DLC thin films are produced as several hundred nm thickness by PE-CVD method. And then these thin films are estimated tribological characteristics to find out useful possibilities as a protecting film for high-quality function and life extension at MEMs by mechanical properties observation . These are measured thickness and residual stress of DLC coating. Compared after measuring friction coefficient, adhesion force, hardness, cohesive force of coating films. As results all test, we can decide several conclusions. First, friction coefficient decreased, as the load increased. otherwise, friction coefficient increased, as thickness of coating film increased under low load$(1\~50mN)$. Secod, adhesion force increased as thickness of coating films. Third, hardness of coating film is affected by substrate coating film when it is less than thickness of 300nm and it has general hardness of DLC coating film when it is more than thickness of 500nm. Fourth, cohesive force of coating film is complexly affected by hardness, adhesion force, residual stress, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.287-293
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• 2006

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) film was deposited using benzene $(C_6H_6)$ by r. f-plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition. The tribological properties of the DLC film were tested by rotating ball-on-disc type tribometer isolated by a chamber. The tribological test was performed in air environment of relative humidity ranging from 0 to 90% in order to observe the tribological behavior of the DLC film with the change of humidity. We used steel ball and DLC coated steel ball to investigate the effect of the counterface material. Using steel ball, the friction coefficient of DLC film increased from 0.025 to 0.2 as the humidity increased from 0% to 90%. In case of DLC coated steel ball which didn't form the Fe-rich debris, the friction coefficient showed much lower dependence of humidity as 0.08 in relative humidity 90%. We confirmed that the high humidity dependence of the friction coefficient using steel ball resulted from the increase of debris size with humidity and the formation of Fe-rich debris by the wear of steel ball. And the friction coefficient was immediately dropped when the relative humidity changed from 90% to 0% during test using steel ball. From this result, we confirmed that the effect of the Fe-rich debris on the friction coefficient was that Fe element in debris formed the highly sensitive graphitic transfer layer to humidity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.260-266
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• 2002

DLC films were deposited on Si wafer by RF plasma assisted CVD using CH4 gas. Tribological tests were conducted using rotating type ball on disk friction tester in dry air. Four kinds of mating balls were used. The mating balls were made with stainless steel but apply different annealing conditions to achieve different hardness conditions. Testing results in all load conditions showed that the harder the mating materials, the lower the friction coefficient among the three kind of martensite mating balls. In case of austenite balls, the friction coefficients were lower than fully annealed martensite ball. The high friction coefficient in soft martensite balls seems to be caused by the larger contact area between DLC film and ball. The wear tracks of DLC films and mating balls could have proven that effect. Measuring the wear track of both DLC films and mating balls have similar tendency comparing to the results of friction coefficients. Wear rate of austenite balls were also smaller than that of fully annealed martensite ball. The results of effect of applying load showed, the friction coefficients were become decrease when the applying loads exceed critical load conditions. The wear track of mating balls showed that some material transfer occurs from DLC film to mating ball during the high friction process. Raman spectra analysis showed that transferred material was a kind of graphite and contact surface of DLC film seems to undergo phase transition from carbon to graphite during the high friction process.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.127-130
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• 2006

DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) films show very desirable surface interactions with high hardness, low friction coefficient, and good wear-resistance properties. The friction behavior of hydrogenated DLC film is dependent on tribological environment, especially surrounding temperature. In this work, the tribological behaviors of DLC (Diamond-like carbon) films, prepared by the radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) method, were studied in elevated temperatures. The ball-on-disk tests with DLC films on steel specimens were conducted at a sliding speed of 60 rpm, a load of 10N, and surrounding various temperatures of $25^{\circ}C,\;40^{\circ}C,\;55^{\circ}C\;and\;75^{\circ}C$. The results show considerable dependency of DLC tribological parameters on temperature. The friction coefficient decreased as the surrounding temperature increased. After tests the wear tracks of hydrogenated DLC film were analyzed by optical microscope, scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The surface roughness and 3-D images of wear track were also obtained by an atomic force microscope (AFM).

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.60-65
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• 2011

A low temperature plasma carburizing process was performed on AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel to achieve an enhancement of the surface hardness without degradation of its corrosion resistance. Attempts were made to investigate the influence of the processing temperatures on the surface hardened layer during low temperature plasma carburizing in order to obtain the optimum processing conditions. The expanded austenite (${\gamma}_c$) phase, which contains a high saturation of carbon (S phase), was formed on all of the treated surfaces. Precipitates of chromium carbides were detected in the hardened layer (C-enriched layer) only for the specimen treated at $550^{\circ}C$. The hardened layer thickness of ${\gamma}_c$ increased up to about $65{\mu}m$ with increasing treatment temperature. The surface hardness reached about 900 $HK_{0.05}$, which is about 4 times higher than that of the untreated sample (250 $HK_{0.05}$). A minor loss in corrosion resistance was observed for the specimens treated at temperatures of $300^{\circ}C{\sim}450^{\circ}C$ compared with untreated austenitic stainless steel. In particular, the precipitation of chromium carbides at $550^{\circ}C$ led to a significant decrease in the corrosion resistance. A diamond-like carbon (DLC) film coating was applied to improve the wear and friction properties of the S phase layer. The DLC film showed a low and stable friction coefficient value of about 0.1 compared with that of the carburized surface (about 0.45). The hardness and corrosion resistance of the S phase layer were further improved by the application of such a DLC film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.173-174
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• 2002

To study the effects of mating materials on the tribological properties of DLC films. we used a ball-on-plate reciprocating friction tester in dry air and mating materials of martensite stainless steel (hardened, annealed SUS440C), austenite stainless steels (SUS304), and bearing steel (hardened, annealed SUJ2). At a light load of 0.6 N, the friction coefficient always exceeded ${\mu}>0.3$. Tribological properties of DLC film were still excellent above 0.6 N, except in sliding against annealed SUJ2. Analysis using micro-laser Raman spectroscopy showed that the difference between annealed SUJ2 and others materials appears mainly due to structural change in film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.398-398
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• 2007

Most recently, the Liquid Crystal (LC) aligning capabilities achieved by ion beam exposure on the diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin film layer have been successfully studied. The DLC thin films have a high mechanical hardness, a high electrical resistance, optical transparency and chemical inertness. Nitrogen doped Diamond Like Carbon (NDLC) thin films exhibit properties similar to those of the DLC films and better thermal stability than the DLC films because C:N bonding in the NDLC film is stronger against thermal stress than C:H bonding in the DLC thin films. Moreover, our research group has already studied ion beam alignment method using the NDLC thin films. The nematic liquid crystal (NLC) alignment effects treated on the SiNx thin film layers using ion beam irradiation for three kinds of N rations was successfully studied for the first time. The SiNx thin film was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and used three kinds of N rations. In order to characterize the films, the atomic force microscopy (AFM) image was observed. The good LC aligning capabilities treated on the SiNx thin film with ion beam exposure for all N rations can be achieved. The low pretilt angles for a NLC treated on the SiNx thin film with ion beam irradiation were measure.