Friction and wear measurements of sputtered MoS<i>x</i> films amorphized by ion bombardment

Abstract

The present study presents an experimental evidence for amorphization of rf sputtered MoSx films by ion bombardment. Even at low doses (3×1015 ions/cm2) of 400 keV argon ions a complete amorphization was confirmed by x-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy. As a result of the ion bombardment the film density increased 100% to almost the bulk value for MoS2. The friction coefficient for ion beam amorphized MoSx was measured to be 0.04 in agreement with the values reported for crystalline films but disagreeing considerably with the friction coefficient of 0.4 previously reported for amorphous films.