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In this study, very simple periodic cathodic vacuum arc deposition was conducted to prepare multilayered structures of diamond-like carbon films with reduced surface roughness and enhanced mechanical properties compared to conventional unfiltered single-layered films. The roughness of single-layered diamond-like carbon films significantly increased from 23 to 104 nm with increasing thickness from 100 to 800 nm due to the droplet formation in plasma atmosphere. By introducing periodic deposition, the roughness of the multilayered structures with a thickness of 400 nm was reduced from 75 to 37 nm, associated with a much smaller number of surface particles. The hardness of the multilayered structures was enhanced from 27 to 34 GPa, and the interface adhesion was increased from 2.73 to 3.63 J/m2. The single- and multilayered films showed a similar amorphous structure with slightly varied ID/IG ratios from 0.9 to 0.6. The periodic deposition process was the dominant factor for the reduced roughness and enhanced mechanical properties of the unfiltered films

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This study reports a mechanical stress-based technique that involves scratching or imprinting to write textured graphite conducting wires/patterns in an insulating amorphous carbon matrix for potential use as interconnects in future carbonaceous circuits. With low-energy post-annealing below the temperature that is required for the thermal graphitization of amorphous carbon, the amorphous carbon phase only in the mechanically stressed regions transforms into a well aligned crystalline graphite structure with a low electrical resistivity of 420 μΩ-cm, while the surrounding amorphous carbon matrix remains insulating. Micro-Raman spectra with obvious graphitic peaks and high-resolution transmission electron microscopic observations of clear graphitic lattice verified the localized phase transformation of amorphous carbon into textured graphite exactly in the stressed regions. The stress-induced reconstruction of carbon bonds to generate oriented graphitic nuclei is believed to assist in the pseudo-self-formation of textured graphite during low-temperature post annealing.