Mechanical Properties of Diamond-Like Silicon–Carbon Films Doped with Vanadium

— The influence of doping with vanadium on the mechanical properties of nanocomposite films deposited on silicon substrates has been investigated. It is found that the material tested is more likely brittle rather than plastic and that the hardness and elastic modulus of an undoped film are somewhat higher than those of vanadium-doped ones. With an increase in the Poisson ratio from 0.2 to 0.3, the hardness H IT of undoped sample increases by 14%, and the elastic modulus E IT decreases by 3.5%. Doping films with vanadium leads to a monotonic decrease in the elastic modulus E IT . The concentration dependence of microhardness H IT is complex: its minimum is observed at 8.8 at % V. It is established that the parameter of relative elastic strain energy of samples under indentation under investigation (η IT ) depends only slightly on film’s Poisson ratio.