Ultrathin amorphous C:H overcoats by pCVD on thin film media

A summary of the material and tribological properties of amorphous carbon films for the overcoat of thin film media is presented. Two families of film are considered. One is the family of sputtered DLC film including amorphous carbon, amorphous hydrogenated, and nitrogenated carbon films, which are all widely used as overcoats for commercially available thin film media. The other film is amorphous hydrogenated carbon film, which is deposited by hot filament plasma CVD and is being developed for next generation overcoats.