Mo doped diamond-like carbon (Mo/DLC) films were deposited on Si substrates via unbalanced magnetron sputtering of molybdenum combined with plasma chemical vapor deposition of CH4/Ar. The microstructure of the. films, characterized by transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction, was considered as a nanocomposite with nano-sized MoC particles uniformly embedded in the amorphous carbon matrix. The structure, morphology, surface composition and tribological properties of the Mo/DLC films before and after the atomic oxygen (AO) irradiation were investigated and a comparison made with the DLC films. The Mo/DLC films exhibited more excellent degradation resistant behaviors in AO environment than the DLC films, and the MoC nanoparticles were proved to play a critical role of preventing the incursion of AO and maintaining the intrinsic structure and excellent tribological properties of DLC films. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B. V.