Title: Influence of carbon content on the nanotribology of W-S-C films

Authors: A. Tomala, A. Pauschitz, Manish Roy, M. Evaristo, A. Cavaleiro

Addresses: Austrian Center of Competence for Tribology, Viktor Kaplan-Strasse 2, 2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria. ' Institut fuer Allgemeine Physik, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Wien, Austria. ' Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, PO: Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad 500 058, India. ' SEG-CEMUC, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Coimbra, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal. ' SEG-CEMUC, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Coimbra, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract: The objective of the present work is to evaluate the influence of carbon content on nanotribological response of reactively sputtered W-S-C thin film. Towards that purpose, W-S-C film containing varying amount of carbon was deposited on tool steel substrate using reactive sputtering. The nanohardness and lateral force microscopy of these films are determined using a nanoindenter and an atomic force microscope (AFM). The results show that the hardness and the pull off force are the maximum at intermediate carbon content. High carbon also appears detrimental for tribology at low load.

Keywords: lateral force microscopy; LFM; nanoindentation; nanohardness; nanotribology; nanotechnology; carbon content; reactive sputtering; thin films; tool steel; tribology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2011.039987

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2011 Vol.5 No.1, pp.3 - 19

Published online: 14 Oct 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article