Ultrathin Carbon with Interspersed Graphene/Fullerene-like Nanostructures: A Durable Protective Overcoat for High Density Magnetic Storage

作者：Dwivedi Neeraj; Satyanarayana Nalam; Yeo Reuben J; Xu Hai; Loh Kian Ping; Tripathy Sudhiranjan; Bhatia Charanjit S^*

来源：Scientific Reports, 2015, 5(1): 11607.

DOI：10.1038/srep11607

One of the key issues for future hard disk drive technology is to design and develop ultrathin (<2 nm) overcoats with excellent wear-and corrosion protection and high thermal stability. Forming carbon overcoats (COCs) having interspersed nanostructures by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) process can be an effective approach to achieve the desired target. In this work, by employing a novel bi-level surface modification approach using FCVA, the formation of a high sp(3) bonded ultrathin (similar to 1.7 nm) amorphous carbon overcoat with interspersed graphene/fullerene-like nanostructures, grown on magnetic hard disk media, is reported. The in-depth spectroscopic and microscopic analyses by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, and Raman spectroscopy support the observed findings. Despite a reduction of similar to 37 % in COC thickness, the FCVA-processed thinner COC (similar to 1.7 nm) shows promising functional performance in terms of lower coefficient of friction (similar to 0.25), higher wear resistance, lower surface energy, excellent hydrophobicity and similar/better oxidation corrosion resistance than current commercial COCs of thickness similar to 2.7 nm. The surface and tribological properties of FCVA-deposited COC was further improved after deposition of lubricant layer.

• 出版日期2015-6-25