ИСТИНА

Целью проекта является исследование покрытий, изготовленных методом импульсно-плазменного распыления графитовой мишени с серебряными включениями в условиях ионной стимуляции. Проведение исследований и интерпретация полученных результатов будет являться заключительной частью диссертационной работы И. Завидовского «Влияние параметров осаждения на структуру тонких углеродных плёнок, полученных методом импульсно-плазменного напыления».

The structural properties of composite carbon-silver coatings synthesized by pulse-plasma technique will be studied in the project. Such coatings are thin (up to 100 nm) films composed of amorphous ta-C carbon matrix and embedded silver nanoclusters. Carbon structures with encapsulated metal nanoclusters can be applied as hardening and biomedical coatings as well as SERS-substrates (substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy). The challenging task associated with carbon-silver films is a control of embedded nanoclusters size. Their shrinking makes it possible to improve coatings adhesion, antimicrobial and plasmonic properties significantly. However, existing techniques of composite coatings treatment, such as annealing, ion or laser beam irradiation, have a number of disadvantages. Main drawback of these treatment techniques is the resulting coalescence of nanoclusters leading to their enlargement. Nevertheless, the decrease of nanoclusters is often required, as it leads to the improvement of the crucial properties of the material. The modification which makes it possible to decrease inclusions size is an initiation of additional ion irradiation during the deposition process, also known as ion assistance. However, this technique leads not only to the desired effect caused by the emergence of new nucleation centers, but also to the selective metal sputtering and ta-C matrix structure rearrangement. The project proposes carbon-silver coatings synthesis and atomic and electronic analysis of the phases constituting the films. As a result, the deposition conditions influence on the films structure will be investigated. The study will make it possible to estimate the applicability prospects of the films synthesized by ion-assisted pulse-plasma sputtering of graphite cathode with silver inclusions as plasmonic elements, protective and biomedical coatings.