Nitrogen-containing materials for wear protection and friction reduction

A method for forming a magnetic recording media having a hard protective film with the empirical formula:

• C.sub.x N.sub.y
• where the amount of nitrogen is in a selected range of about 10 at. % to 20 at. %, comprising:
• providing a magnetron sputter apparatus including a vacuum chamber, and incorporating therein a carbon target and a magnetic recording medium deposition substrate,
• providing within said vacuum chamber, an inert sputter gas including nitrogen in the range from about 30 to 60% of the total gas concentration,
• applying a magnetic field in the region of said target having a maximum field strength in the range of 200-500 gauss for controlling the density of electrons in said chamber,
• applying an electric field for producing power density at the target in the range of about 2 to 8 W/cm.sup.2 for ionizing said sputter gas and causing sputtering from said target and deposition of said film on said substrate,
• controlling the pressure in said chamber in the range of about 3 to 8 microns and the separation between said target and deposition substrate in the range of about 1 to 3 inches, and
• selecting the strength of said magnetic field and at least one of the level of nitrogen in said sputter gas, the power density produced by said electric field, the pressure in said chamber, and said separation to cause the amount of nitrogen in said film to be within said selected range.