We have studied, for the first time, the effect of continuously-varying film gradient profiles on the adhesion strength, residual stress, and effective film hardness of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films deposited on stainless steel substrates. Precisely graded DLC films with five polynomial profiles (linear, quadratic, cubic, square root and cubic root profiles) were investigated and compared with pure DLC films, and it was shown that by optimizing the film gradient profile the residual stress and adhesion characteristics can be significantly improved but the effective film hardness can be negatively affected. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.