Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings - wear resistant with low friction properties

Research and development of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings have resulted in a class of hard and wear resistant thin films with a range of very different properties. The most well-known properties of such DLC-coatings, which normally are used in tribological applications, are high hardness and wear resistance combined with a very low friction coefficient. A less noticed property of carbon based coatings is the surface energy or the wettability. To influence the surface energy of DLC-coatings, the structure of the deposited films can be modified by incorporation of further non-metallic elements into the matrix of the amorphous network. Today the class of DLC-films were used for very different technical applications because of the wide range of properties which can generate during the deposition process of carbon based coatings.