Wear, Plasticity, and Rehybridization in Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon

摘要: Wear in self-mated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films is studied by molecular dynamics and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Both theory experiment demonstrate the formation of a soft (a-C) layer with increased sp2 content, which grows faster than an a-C tribolayer found on diamond sliding under similar conditions. The $$\hbox{sp}^{3} \rightarrow\,\hbox{ sp}^{2}$$ transition ta-C explained easy breaking prestressed bonds finite, nanoscale region, whereas amorphization occurs at atomically sharp interface. A detailed analysis underlying rehybridization mechanism reveals that $$\hbox{sp}^{3}\, \rightarrow\hbox{ triggered plasticity adjacent a-C. Rehybridization therefore region has not yet experienced plastic yield. resulting interpreted as precursor to experimentally observed wear.