| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Bakhit, Babak, 1983-, et al.
(author)
-
Age hardening in superhard ZrB2-rich Zr1-xTaxBy thin films
- 2021
-
In: Scripta Materialia. - : Elsevier. - 1359-6462 .- 1872-8456. ; 191, s. 120-125
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We recently showed that sputter-deposited Zr1-xTaxBy thin films have hexagonal AlB2-type columnar nanostructure in which column boundaries are B-rich for x < 0.2, while Ta-rich for x ≥ 0.2. As-deposited layers with x ≥ 0.2 exhibit higher hardness and, simultaneously, enhanced toughness. Here, we study the mechanical properties of ZrB2.4, Zr0.8Ta0.2B1.8, and Zr0.7Ta0.3B1.5 films annealed in Ar atmosphere as a function of annealing temperature Ta up to 1200 °C. In-situ and ex-situ nanoindentation analyses reveal that all films undergo age hardening up to Ta = 800 °C, with the highest hardness achieved for Zr0.8Ta0.2B1.8 (45.5±1.0 GPa). The age hardening, which occurs without any phase separation or decomposition, can be explained by point-defect recovery that enhances chemical bond density. Although hardness decreases at Ta > 800 °C due mainly to recrystallization, column coarsening, and planar defect annihilation, all layers show hardness values above 34 GPa over the entire Ta range.
|
|
| 3. |
- Emmerlich, Jens, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Growth of Ti3SiC2 thin films by elemental target magnetron sputtering
- 2004
-
In: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 96:9, s. 4817-4826
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Epitaxial Ti3SiC2(0001) thin films have been deposited by dc magnetron sputtering from three elemental targets of Ti, C, and Si onto MgO(111) and Al2O3(0001) substrates at temperatures of 800–900 °C. This process allows composition control to synthesize Mn + 1AXn (MAX) phases (M: early transition metal; A: A-group element; X: C and/or N; n = 1–3) including Ti4SiC3. Depositions on MgO(100) substrates yielding the Ti–Si–C MAX phases with (105), as the preferred orientation. Samples grown at different substrate temperatures, studied by means of transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction investigations, revealed the constraints of Ti3SiC2 nucleation due to kinetic limitations at substrate temperatures below 700 °C. Instead, there is a competitive TiCx growth with Si segregation to form twin boundaries or Si substitutional incorporation in TiCx. Physical properties of the as-deposited single-crystal Ti3SiC2 films were determined. A low resistivity of 25 µ cm was measured. The Young's modulus, ascertained by nanoindentation, yielded a value of 343–370 GPa. For the mechanical deformation response of the material, probing with cube corner and Berkovich indenters showed an initial high hardness of almost 30 GPa. With increased maximum indentation loads, the hardness was observed to decrease toward bulk values as the characteristic kink formation sets in with dislocation ordering and delamination at basal planes.
|
|
| 4. |
- Hållstedt, Julius, et al.
(author)
-
The effect of carbon and germanium on phase transformation of nickel on Si1-x-yGexCy epitaxial layers
- 2004
-
In: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 95:5, s. 2397-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The influence of carbon and germanium on phase transformation and sheet resistance of Ni on epitaxially grown Si1-x-yGexCy (0less than or equal toxless than or equal to0.24 and 0less than or equal toyless than or equal to0.01) layers annealed in a temperature range of 360 to 900degreesC has been investigated. The role of strain relaxation or compensation in the reaction of Ni on Si1-x-yGexCy layers due to Ge or C out-diffusion to the underlying layer during the phase transformation has also been investigated. The formed NiSiGe layers were crystalline, with strong (020)/(013) growth orientation in the direction, but the thermal stability decreased rapidly with increasing Ge amount due to agglomeration. However, this thermal behavior was shifted to higher annealing temperatures when carbon was incorporated in the SiGe layers. A carbon accumulation at the interface of NiSiGeC/SiGeC has been observed even at low-temperature annealing, which is suggested to retard the phase transformation and agglomeration of Ni/SiGeC system.
|
|
| 5. |
- Lewin, Erik, et al.
(author)
-
On the origin of a third spectral component of C1s XPS-spectra for nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposite thin films
- 2008
-
In: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 202:15, s. 3563-3570
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra of sputter-etched nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposite thin films published in literature show an extra feature of unknown origin in the C1s region. This feature is situated between the contributions of carbide and the carbon matrix. We have used high kinetic energy XPS (HIKE-XPS) on magnetron-sputtered nc-TiC/a-C thin films to show that this feature represents a third chemical environment in the nanocomposites, besides the carbide and the amorphous carbon. Our results show that component is present in as-deposited samples, and that the intensity is strongly enhanced by Ar+-ion etching. This third chemical environment may be due to interface or disorder effects. The implications of these observations on the XPS analysis of nanocomposites are discussed in the light of overlap problems for ternary carbon based systems.
|
|
| 6. |
- Thörnberg, Jimmy, et al.
(author)
-
Microstructure and materials properties of understoichiometric TiBx thin films grown by HiPIMS
- 2020
-
In: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 404
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- TiBx thin films with a B content of 1.43 <= x <= 2.70 were synthesized using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and direct-current magnetron sputtering (DCMS). HiPIMS allows compositions ranging from understoichiometric to overstoichiometric dense TiBx thin films with a B/Ti ratio between 1.43 and 2.06, while DCMS yields overstoichiometric TiBx films with a B/Ti ratio ranging from 2.20 to 2.70. Excess B in overstoichiometric TiBx thin films from DCMS results in a hardness up to 37.7 +/- 0.8 GPa, attributed to the formation of an amorphous B-rich tissue phase interlacing stoichiometric TiB2 columnar structures. We furthermore show that understoichiometric TiB1.43 thin films synthesized by HiPIMS, where the deficiency of B is found to be accommodated by Ti-rich planar defects, exhibit a superior hardness of 43.9 +/- 0.9 GPa. The apparent fracture toughness and thermal conductivity of understoichiometric TiB1.43 HiPIMS films are 4.2 +/- 0.1 MPa root m and 2.46 +/- 0.22 W/(m.K), respectively, as compared to corresponding values for overstoichiometric TiB2.70 DCMS film samples of 3.1 +/- 0.1 MPa root m and 4.52 +/- 0.45 W/(mK). This work increases the fundamental understanding of understoichiometric TiBx thin films and their materials properties, and shows that understoichiometric films have properties matching or going beyond those with excess B.
|
|
| 7. |
- Bakhit, Babak, 1983-, et al.
(author)
-
Self-organized columnar Zr0.7Ta0.3B1.5 core/shell-nanostructure thin films
- 2020
-
In: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : Elsevier. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 401
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We recently showed that Zr1−xTaxBy thin films have columnar nanostructure in which column boundaries are B-rich for x < 0.2, while Ta-rich for x ≥ 0.2. Layers with x ≥ 0.2 exhibit higher hardness and, simultaneously, enhanced toughness. Here, we determine the atomic-scale nanostructure of sputter-deposited columnar Zr0.7Ta0.3B1.5 thin films. The columns, 95 ± 17 Å, are core/shell nanostructures in which 80 ± 15-Å cores are crystalline hexagonal-AlB2-structure Zr-rich stoichiometric Zr1−xTaxB2. The shell structure is a narrow dense, disordered region that is Ta-rich and highly B-deficient. The cores are formed under intense ion mixing via preferential Ta segregation, due to the lower formation enthalpy of TaB2 than ZrB2, in response to the chemical driving force to form a stoichiometric compound. The films with unique combination of nanosized crystalline cores and dense metallic-glass-like shells provide excellent mechanical properties.
|
|
| 8. |
- Chang, Jui-Che, et al.
(author)
-
HiPIMS-grown AlN buffer for threading dislocation reduction in DC-magnetron sputtered GaN epifilm on sapphire substrate
- 2023
-
In: Vacuum. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0042-207X .- 1879-2715. ; 217
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxial films on sapphire (Al2O3) substrates have been grown using reactive magnetron sputter epitaxy with a liquid Ga target. Threading dislocations density (TDD) of sputtered GaN films was reduced by using an inserted high-quality aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer grown by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (R-HiPIMS) in a gas mixture of Ar and N2. After optimizing the Ar/N2 pressure ratio and deposition power, a high-quality AlN film exhibiting a narrow full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) value of the double-crystal x-ray rocking curve (DCXRC) of the AlN(0002) peak of 0.086° was obtained by R-HiPIMS. The mechanism giving rise the observed quality improvement is attributed to the enhancement of kinetic energy of the adatoms in the deposition process when operated in a transition mode. With the inserted HiPIMS-AlN as a buffer layer for direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) GaN growth, the FWHM values of GaN(0002) and (10 1‾ 1) XRC decrease from 0.321° to 0.087° and from 0.596° to 0.562°, compared to the direct growth of GaN on sapphire, respectively. An order of magnitude reduction from 2.7 × 109 cm−2 to 2.0 × 108 cm−2 of screw-type TDD calculated from the FWHM of the XRC data using the inserted HiPIMS-AlN buffer layer demonstrates the improvement of crystal quality of GaN. The result of TDD reduction using the HiPIMS-AlN buffer was also verified by weak beam dark-field (WBDF) cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
|
|
| 9. |
- Ding, Haoming, et al.
(author)
-
Synthesis of MAX phases Nb2CuC and Ti2(Al0.1Cu0.9)N by A-site replacement reaction in molten salts
- 2019
-
In: Materials Research Letters. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2166-3831. ; 7:12, s. 510-516
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- New MAX phases Ti2(AlxCu1−x)N and Nb2CuC were synthesized by A-site replacement by reacting Ti2AlN and Nb2AlC, respectively, with CuCl2 or CuI molten salt. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomically resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy showed complete A-site replacement in Nb2AlC, which lead to the formation of Nb2CuC. However, the replacement of Al in Ti2AlN phase was only close to complete at Ti2(Al0.1Cu0.9)N. Density-functional theory calculations corroborated the structural stability of Nb2CuC and Ti2CuN phases. Moreover, the calculated cleavage energy in these Cu-containing MAX phases are weaker than in their Al-containing counterparts.The preparation of MAX phases Nb2CuC and Ti2(Al0.1Cu0.9)N were realized by A-site replacement in Ti2AlN and Nb2AlN, respectively.
|
|
| 10. |
- Ghafoor, Naureen, et al.
(author)
-
Self-structuring in Zr1-xAlxN films as a function of composition and growth temperature
- 2018
-
In: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nanostructure formation via surface-diffusion-mediated segregation of ZrN and AIN in Zr1-xAlxN films during high mobility growth conditions is investigated for 0 amp;lt;= x amp;lt;= 1. The large immiscibility combined with interfacial surface and strain energy balance resulted in a hard nanolabyrinthine lamellar structure with well-defined (semi) coherent c-ZrN and w-AlN domains of sub-nm to similar to 4 nm in 0.2 amp;lt;= x amp;lt;= 0.4 films, as controlled by atom mobility. For high AlN contents (x amp;gt; 0.49) Al-rich ZrN domains attain wurtzite structure within fine equiaxed nanocomposite wurtzite lattice. Slow diffusion in wurtzite films points towards crystal structure dependent driving force for decomposition. The findings of unlikelihood of isostructural decomposition in c-Zr1-xAlxN, and stability of w-Zr1-xAlxN (in large x films) is complemented with first principles calculations.
|
|
