Diamond and DLC Films: Morphological Changes During Sliding Wear

Today diamond and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films are the subject of an intense research due to outstanding properties of these materials such as high hardness, wear resistance, low coefficient of friction and chemical inertness, allowing their successful use as coatings in a wide range of tribological applications. An important topic in the study of tribological interactions between mating bodies is morphology of the surfaces formed during the wear process. The book represents the results obtained in the study of the tribologial behavior of diamond and DLC films in sliding tests against hard ceramics, including the detailed descriptions of the micro- and nanoscale structures observed on the worn surfaces. The first section of the book is devoted to a brief overview of carbon materials and their properties. The following section explains methods of obtaining and characterization of diamond and DLC films. In the third section the experimental results are presented.