A hollow cathode arc (HCA) ion plating system was developed to deposit hydrogen-free diamond-like carbon (DLC) films. Unlike the conventional cold cathodic arc, a high-temperature hollow cathodic arc was employed to generate a high flux of carbon ions and carbon ion clusters producing no micro-particles for the depositions of hydrogen-free DLC films. The plasma density characterized by a Langmuir probe was around 10(11) cm(-3) near the anode. The filins were characterized by Raman, alpha-step, SEM, nano-indentation and TEM. The deposition rate was up to 0.6 mu m/h. The DLC film with hardness around 19 G Pa was obtained at a substrate bias of -250 V The hardness of the DLC film containing no hydrogen was relatively low, and believed to be due to the high substrate temperature (similar to 400 degrees C) and the high flux of Ar ion bombardments. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.