Deposition of Wear-Resistant Nanocomposite Coatings from Accelerated С₆₀ Ions

Hard wear-resistant carbon coatings were deposited from accelerated C₆₀ ions at temperatures of 200 and 300°C. It has been established that the mechanical properties of the coatings are determined by the substrate temperature (T_s) and the energy composition of the beam. The hardness of coatings deposited from C⁺₆₀ ions with an energy of 7 keV exceeds 50 GPa and is virtually independent of T_s. The presence of C₆₀²⁺ and C₆₀³⁺ with an energy of ~14 and 21 keV, respectively, in the beam leads to a result that is not typical for carbon coatings – the hardness increases by more than 1.3 times with an increase in T_s from 200 to 300°C (from 31.6 GPa to 41.6 GPa). In this case, according to Raman spectroscopy data, the size of graphite nanocrystals in the coating increases with temperature up to almost 2 nm. Coatings obtained under conditions of irradiation with C₆₀²⁺ and C₆₀³⁺ ions are characterized by minimal wear (1.5×10^–8 mm³/N∙m, T_s = 200°C) and minimal friction coefficient (µ = 0.05 for T_s = 300°C). We attribute the unusual dependence of hardness on T_s and the improvement in the tribological properties of coatings to the formation of a composite structure based on a diamond-like matrix and graphite nanocrystals in this range of T_s.