Structure and properties of silver-containing a-C(H) films deposited by plasma immersion ion implantation

In this study, we have grown silver-containing hydrogenated (a-C:H) and non-hydrogenated (a-C) amorphous carbon coatings by two plasma immersion ion implantation methods: I) chemical vapor deposition of methane combined with pulsed filtered cathodic arc deposition of silver, and II) by alternating arc pulses from graphite and silver in a dual cathodic arc plasma source. This unique “bias selective” feature of the deposition system allowed the deposition of silver with the substrates at ground and avoided the sputtering of the grown a-C film. Chemical composition of the samples was analyzed by acquiring their compositional depth-profiles using radio-frequency Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (rf-GDOES), while the microstructural properties were analyzed by X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) and Raman spectroscopy. In this contribution, we compare mechanical and biomedical properties by means of nanoindentation and cell viability tests, respectively, of a-C(H) films obtained by two different plasma immersion ion implantation techniques.