Fracture toughness of diamondlike carbon coatings

The fracture behavior of diamondlike carbon (DLC) coatings on Si substrates has been examined using microindentation. The presence of DLC coatings reduces the radial crack length to less than one-half the crack length observed in uncoated Si at the same indenter load. A total work of fracture analysis of the radial cracks formed in the DLC-coating/Si-substrate system gives 10.1 MPa m^1/2 as the average fracture toughness for DLC alone. A bond-breaking calculation for DLC suggests that the elastic limit fracture toughness should be 1.5 MPa (m)^1/2. The higher value obtained from experiment and total work analysis suggests that plastic work and/or a tortuous path crack evolution occurred during DLC fracture process.