01673 IUPAC Gold Book - diamond-like carbon films 10.1351/goldbook.D01673 D01673 current initialism: DLC 1 Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films are hard, amorphous films with a significant fraction of \(\mathrm{sp}^{3}\)-hybridized carbon atoms and which can contain a significant amount of hydrogen. Depending on the deposition conditions, these films can be fully amorphous or contain diamond crystallites. These materials are not called diamond unless a full three-dimensional crystalline lattice of diamond is proven. Diamond-like films without hydrogen can be prepared by carbon ion beam deposition, ion-assisted sputtering from graphite or by laser ablation of graphite. Diamond-like carbon films containing significant contents of hydrogen are prepared by chemical vapour deposition. The hydrogen content is usually over 25 atomic %. The deposition parameters are (low) total pressure, hydrogen partial pressure, precursor molecules and plasma ionization. The plasma activation can be radio frequency, microwave or $\ce{Ar^{+}}$ ions. High ionization favours amorphous films while high atomic hydrogen contents favour Diamond crystallite formation. Because of the confusion about structure engendered by the term Diamond-like carbon films, the term hard amorphous carbon films has been suggested as a synonym. activation https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/A00093 diamond https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01671 graphite https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02684 hard amorphous carbon https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/H02741 ionization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/I03183 laser https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/L03459 partial pressure https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04420 sputtering https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05895 PAC, 1995, 67, 473. 'Recommended terminology for the description of carbon as a solid (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 487 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567030473) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01673/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01673/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01673/plain Citation: 'diamond-like carbon films' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.D01673 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-04-18T23:23:42+00:00