A doped diamond semiconductor and method of production using a laser is disclosed herein. As disclosed, a dopant and/or a diamond or sapphire seed material may be added to a graphite based ablative layer positioned below a confinement layer, the ablative layer also being graphite based and positioned above a backing layer, to promote formation of diamond particles having desirable semiconductor properties via the action of a laser beam upon the ablative layer. Dopants may be incorporated into the process to activate the reaction sought to produce a material useful in production of a doped semiconductor or a doped conductor suitable for the purpose of modulating the electrical, thermal or quantum properties of the material produced. As disclosed, the diamond particles formed by either the machine or method of confined pulsed laser deposition disclosed may be arranged as semiconductors, electrical components, thermal components, quantum components and/or integrated circuits.

A sliding member includes a carbon transfer layer and can superiorly effectively decrease friction and reduce wear. A method produces the sliding member. The sliding member includes a substrate and a carbon transfer layer. The carbon transfer layer is disposed on the surface of the substrate and includes both sp.sup.2 bonded carbon and sp.sup.3 bonded carbon. The carbon transfer layer preferably has a ratio sp.sup.3/(sp.sup.2+sp.sup.3) of the sp.sup.3 bonded carbon to the totality of the sp.sup.2 bonded carbon and the sp.sup.3 bonded carbon of 0.1 or more.

The invention relates to the production of wear-resistant layers which are exposed to friction wear on surfaces of components of internal combustion engines. In the process, wear-resistant layers are formed on the respective surface by electric arc discharge under vacuum conditions. The wear-resistant layers are formed from at least approximately hydrogen-free tetrahedrally amorphous (ta-C) comprising a mixture of sp2 and sp3 hybridized carbon and have a microhardness of at least 3500 HV and an arithmetical mean roughness value Ra of 0.1 μm without a mechanical, physical and/or chemical surface processing taking place.

A manufacturing method for a head slider coated with Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) includes: providing a substrate that is to be finally made into a head slider; depositing a DLC layer on a surface of the substrate, with carbon plasma source being sputtered in a direction that is vertical to the surface of the substrate; and doping a fluorine-doping (F-doping) layer on the DLC layer. Whereby the head slider has good film adhesion performance, higher hardness, better wear resistance, lower surface energy to obtain good hydrophobicity and oleophobicity, and lower fly height in HDD.

A composite structure for use as a constituent of a mounting device, wherein the composite structure comprises an electrically conductive carrier, an intermediate layer comprising adhesion promoting material and being arranged on the electrically conductive carrier, and a thermally conductive and electrically insulating layer on the intermediate layer.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a piston ring covered with a DLC coating that has excellent wear resistance and shows a low attacking property on a cylinder bore sliding surface. The problem is solved by a piston ring which is used in the presence of an engine lubricating oil and includes a DLC coating on an outer peripheral sliding surface. The DLC coating has an sp.sup.2 component ratio of 0.5 to 0.85 as determined from a TEM-EELS spectrum obtained by a combination of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), as well as a coating hardness of 12 GPa to 26 GPa and a Young's modulus of 250 GPa or less as measured by a nanoindentation method.

Provided is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method in which a thick, hard carbon film having excellent durability can be formed, and chipping resistance and wear resistance can bot be achieved while improving the low friction properties and peeling resistance of the formed hard carbon film. Provided is a coating film having a total film thickness of greater than 1 μm and less than or equal to 50 μm, wherein, when observed using a bright field TEM image, the cross section of the coating film is revealed to consist of relatively white hard carbon layers and relatively black hard carbon layers alternately stacked in the thickness direction, and the white hard carbon layers have a region having a columns-shape, which has grown in the thickness direction.

An assembly for a fuel injector includes a base material, a coated region formed on a surface of the base material, an uncoated region formed on a surface of the base material, in contact with and supported by a jig, and formed to be partitioned from the coated region so as to prevent the coated region from peeling off during laser welding, and a coating material stacked in a multilayer structure on the coated region. As a result, friction reduction, high hardness, impact resistance, heat resistance, and durability of the assembly may be improved, and a portion requiring the coating may be precisely coated.

The present invention relates to a fluorescent nanodiamond preparing method including a first operation of preparing nanodiamonds having an average particle diameter of 10 nm or less, a second operation of implanting plasma ions into the nanodiamonds, a third operation of heat-treating the nanodiamonds implanted with the plasma ions under a vacuum or inert gas atmosphere, a fourth operation of oxygen treatment of the heat-treated nanodiamonds under a gas atmosphere including oxygen to oxidize the surfaces of the nanodiamonds, a fifth operation of acid-treating the oxygen-treated nanodiamonds, a sixth operation of centrifuging and cleaning the acid-treated nanodiamonds, and a seventh operation of drying the cleaned nanodiamonds, wherein, in the second operation, the plasma ions are implanted at an incident ion dose of 10.sup.13 ions/cm.sup.2 or more and 10.sup.20 ions/cm.sup.2 or less.

Cathode structures are disclosed for use with pulsed cathodic arc deposition systems for forming diamond-like carbon (DLC) films on devices, such as on the sliders of hard disk drives. In illustrative examples, a base layer composed of an electrically- and thermally-conducting material is provided between the ceramic substrate of the cathode and a graphitic paint outer coating, where the base layer is a silver-filled coating that adheres to the ceramic rod and the graphitic paint. The base layer is provided, in some examples, to achieve and maintain a relatively low resistance (and hence a relatively high conductivity) within the cathode structure during pulsed arc deposition to avoid issues that can result from a loss of conductivity within the graphitic paint over time as deposition proceeds. Examples of suitable base material compounds are described herein where, e.g., the base layer can withstand temperatures of 1700° F. (927° C.).