The effects of high energy ion-implantation treatment on the mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been investigated in this study. The micro-tribological properties of DLC films formed by using various methods such as ion-beam enhanced deposition (IBED) and plasma based ion-implantation (PBII) have been examined by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and acoustic emission (AE) oscillation scratch tester. With the PBII method DLC films were deposited on silicon wafer under conditions of a pulse bias of −5 to −20kV in an atmosphere of CH₄ plasma. DLC films were deposited with the IBED Method by means of ion-plating and the deposition was performed using the methods of dynamic mixing and static mixing at an acceleration voltage of 120kV. These main results of above-mentioned tests are summarized as follows.
(1) In case of DLC films deposited by the PBII method, there is an existing peak voltage at which the maximum hardness and durability were provided.
(2) DLC films deposited with PBII method shows higher hardness than these deposited with the IBED method does but they also have brittleness is large. Therefore, the quantity of micro wear of DLC films with PBII was larger than that of DLC films with IBED.
(3) The critical load of PBII-DLC films increased with an increase on a peak voltage. And, the adhesive strength of ion beam mixing DLC films deposited at 120kV is similar to that of PBII films deposited at a peak voltage of several tens of kV.