Investigation of fracture characteristics in thermally aged thin films of diamond-like carbon

To investigate the chemical and mechanical stability of diamond-like carbon films at 300 °C, we thermally aged the films for different aging times (0: virgin, 24, 48 h). From the Raman spectra analyses, the indentation tests, and the total work fracture data, we confirmed that the aged sample-2(precursor gas: C6H14) had better mechanical characteristics and thermal stabilities than the aged sample-1(precursor gas: C6H6). Also, the fracture toughness is found to decrease with increasing ratio of the intensities of the D- and G-peaks in Raman spectroscopy.