Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 75: Nanotribology II
O 75.8: Talk
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 16:45–17:00, H36
Ultra-thin films as wear resistive coatings — •Tassilo Kaule1, Sascha Pihan1, Sebastian G. J. Emmerling1, Yi Zhang1, Renate Förch1, Jochen Gutmann1, Hans-Jürgen Butt1, Rüdiger Berger1, David Pires2, Armin Knoll2, Bernd Gotsmann2, and Urs T. Dürig2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz — 2Zurich Research Laboratory, IBM Research, 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland
Here we report on developing and characterizing ultra-thin polymer films with certain mechanical and chemical properties. The films were deposited via plasma-polymerisation from the monomers hexamethyl-disiloxane or norbornene. The variation of the reaction conditions, e.g. plasma power, reaction time, pulse modes and additional gases allow adjusting mechanical and interface properties like hardness or hydrophility. We discuss the feasibility of such ultra-thin films as mechanical protection layers for softer polymers such as polystyrene. In particular, we optimized the ultra-thin films for the use as a protection layer for storage media as used for thermomechancial probe based storage. The mechanical stability of the layered medium was tested with scanning force microscopy tribology tests [1], the thickness of the films were measured by profilometry and X-ray reflectivity measurements. Furthermore contact angle studies were performed to characterize the film surface. We found that film thicknesses < 10 nm can be used as suitable wear resistant protection layers for polystyrene but still allow thermomechancial read and write operations.
[1] R. Berger et al., Langmuir, 23, 3150 - 3156 (2007)