IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Tribology Thursday Sessions
       Session TR-ThM

Paper TR-ThM9
Diamond-Like Carbon Nanocontacts

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 11:00 am, Room 132

Session: Tribological Surface Engineering for Lubrication & Wear Resistance
Presenter: R.W. Carpick, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Authors: R.W. Carpick, University of Wisconsin - Madison
J.R. VanLangedon, University of Wisconsin - Madison
E.H. Wilson, University of Wisconsin - Madison
K. Sridharan, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Correspondent: Click to Email
Wear-resistant low-friction coatings are of interest for a variety of applications from automotive engines to sub-micron machines. One particularly important coating is diamond-like carbon (DLC), which can possess mechanical properties approaching those of diamond. We have used atomic force microscopy to study the nanotribological properties of DLC as a function of preparation to investigate the mechanisms that underlie ultralow friction and wear. Furthermore, we have fabricated nano-asperities by coating the tips of atomic force microscope cantilevers with DLC. The unique coating process, plasma-source ion deposition, produces a high-quality conformal coating of DLC. By placing this asperity in contact with a DLC-coated substrate, we are able to measure, for the first time, the mechanical and frictional properties of DLC/DLC interfaces at the nano-scale. We will discuss the fundamental relations governing friction for this interface.