Dramatically enhanced mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon films on polymer substrate for flexible display devices via argon plasma pretreatment

摘要

Hydrogen-free diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been deposited on polyimide (PI) substrate at room temperature using the sputtering with a novel nanodiamond target. Also, argon plasma pretreatment procedure for PI substrate was optimized to improve the adhesion and characteristics of the as-prepared DLC film. The deposited DLC film on the PI substrate pretreated with - 400 V of bias voltage was found to possess the highest sp(3) bonding fraction of 53%, the pencil hardness of 3H, and the optical transmittance of 82%, respectively. The research work demonstrates prosperous applications of DLC films in the protective coating for commercialized optoelectronic devices.