| 1. |
- Greczynski, Grzegorz, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Reference binding energies of transition metal carbides by core-level x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy free from Ar+ etching artefacts
- 2018
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Ingår i: Applied Surface Science. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0169-4332 .- 1873-5584. ; 436, s. 102-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) core level binding energies (BE's) for the widely-applicable groups IVb-VIb transition metal carbides (TMCs) TiC, VC, CrC, ZrC, NbC, MoC, HfC, TaC, and WC. Thin film samples are grown in the same deposition system, by dc magnetron co-sputtering from graphite and respective elemental metal targets in Ar atmosphere. To remove surface contaminations resulting from exposure to air during sample transfer from the growth chamber into the XPS system, layers are either (i) Ar+ ion-etched or (ii) UHV-annealed in situ prior to XPS analyses. High resolution XPS spectra reveal that even gentle etching affects the shape of core level signals, as well as BE values, which are systematically offset by 0.2-0.5 eV towards lower BE. These destructive effects of Ar+ ion etch become more pronounced with increasing the metal atom mass due to an increasing carbon-to-metal sputter yield ratio. Systematic analysis reveals that for each row in the periodic table (3d, 4d, and 5d) C 1s BE increases from left to right indicative of a decreased charge transfer from TM to C atoms, hence bond weakening. Moreover, C 1s BE decreases linearly with increasing carbide/metal melting point ratio. Spectra reported here, acquired from a consistent set of samples in the same instrument, should serve as a reference for true deconvolution of complex XPS cases, including multinary carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides.
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| 2. |
- Azina, Clio, et al.
(författare)
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Oxidation behaviour of V2AlC MAX phase coatings
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of the European Ceramic Society. - : ELSEVIER SCI LTD. - 0955-2219 .- 1873-619X. ; 40:13, s. 4436-4444
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the oxidation behaviour of V2AlC coatings up to 800 degrees C, in air. The coatings were deposited at 580 degrees C using magnetron sputtering from a powder metallurgical composite V2AlC target and were subsequently oxidised for 5, 15 and 30 min. The microstructural evolution of the samples was investigated, and X-ray diffraction patterns were collected to track the formation of oxides. The first indications of oxidation appear after just 15 min at 500 degrees C, as V-based oxides grew on the surface of the coatings. Later, the presence of mostly V-based oxides and ternary (V, Al)-oxides was observed starting after 5 min at 600 degrees C. Further analyses confirmed outward diffusion of V and inward diffusion of O, while Al tends to sublimate. alpha-A12O3 was only indexed after 5 min at 800 degrees C. Ex-situ electrical resistivity measurements allowed tracking the oxidation progress of the V2AlC coating.
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| 3. |
- Bakhit, Babak, et al.
(författare)
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Improving the high-temperature oxidation resistance of TiB2 thin films by alloying with Al
- 2020
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Ingår i: Acta Materialia. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 1359-6454 .- 1873-2453. ; 196, s. 677-689
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Refractory transition-metal diborides (TMB2) are candidates for extreme environments due to melting points above 3000 degrees C, excellent hardness, good chemical stability, and thermal and electrical conductivity. However, they typically suffer from rapid high-temperature oxidation. Here, we study the effect of Al addition on the oxidation properties of sputter-deposited TiB2-rich Ti1-xAlxBy thin films and demonstrate that alloying the films with Al significantly increases the oxidation resistance with a slight decrease in hardness. TiB2.4 layers are deposited by dc magnetron sputtering (DCMS) from a TiB2 target, while Ti1-xAlxBy alloy films are grown by hybrid high-power impulse and dc magnetron co-sputtering (Al-HiPIMS/TiB2-DCMS). All as-deposited films exhibit columnar structure. The column boundaries of TiB2.4 are B-rich, while Ti0.68Al0.32B1.35 alloys have Ti-rich columns surrounded by a Ti(1-x)Al(x)By tissue phase which is predominantly Al rich. Air-annealing TiB2.4 at temperatures above 500 degrees C leads to the formation of oxide scales that do not contain B and mostly consist of a rutile-TiO2 (s) phase. The resulting oxidation products are highly porous due to the evaporation of B2O3 (g) phase as well as the coarsening of TiO2 crystallites. This poor oxidation resistance is significantly improved by alloying with Al. While air-annealing at 800 degrees C for 0.5 h results in the formation of an similar to 1900-nm oxide scale on TiB2.4, the thickness of the scale formed on the Ti0.68Al0.32B1.35 alloys is similar to 470 nm. The enhanced oxidation resistance is attributed to the formation of a dense, protective Al-containing oxide scale that considerably decreases the oxygen diffusion rate by suppressing the oxide-crystallites coarsening. (C) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 4. |
- Bakhit, Babak, 1983-
(författare)
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Multifunctional Transition-metal Diboride Coatings Synthesized by Magnetron sputtering with Synchronized Metal-ion Irradiation
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Refractory transition-metal diborides (TMB2), classified as ultra-high temperature ceramics, are promising materials for extreme thermal and chemical environments. There is a growing demand for employing TMB2 in high-temperature electrodes, advanced nuclear fission reactors, molten metal containment, refractory crucibles, thermocouple protection tubes in steel baths and aluminum reduction cells, reinforcement fibers, solar power, aerospace, and armor applications. Magnetron-sputter-deposited TMB2 have recently received increasing attention as the next class of hard ceramic protective thin films. These layers usually crystallize in a hexagonal AlB2 crystal structure (P6/mmm, SG-191) in which B atoms form graphite-like honeycomb sheets between hexagonal-close-packed TM layers. The strong covalent bonding between TM and B atoms as well as within the honeycomb B sheets provides high melting temperature, hardness, and stiffness, while metallic bonding within TM layers results in good electrical and thermal conductivities. However, sputter-deposited TMB2 films suffer from several critical issues such as boron overstoichiometry, high brittleness, and low oxidation resistance. All of these aspects are addressed in the thesis.In Paper 1, the common issue with sputter-deposited diboride thin films, i.e. the presence of excess B, is resolved by using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The B/Ti ratio in TiBx films, used as a model materials system, is controllably varied from 2.08 to 1.83 by adjusting the HiPIMS pulse length ton, while maintaining the average power and pulse frequency constant. As a result, the peak current density increases from 0.27 to 0.88 A/cm2, which leads to an increased gas rarefaction and, hence, higher metal-ion densities in the plasma. Film growth becomes then increasingly controlled by ionized target atoms, rather than neutral species. Since sputter-ejected Ti atoms have a higher probability of being ionized than B atoms, due to their lower first-ionization potential and larger ionization cross-section, the B/Ti ratio in the films decreases a function of target peak current.While TM diborides are inherently hard, that alone is not sufficient to prevent failure in applications involving high stresses, as hardness is typically accompanied by brittleness. In order to avoid brittle cracking, thin films must be both hard and relatively ductile, which is referred to as high toughness. In Paper 2, it is demonstrated that Zr1-xTaxBy thin films grown by hybrid high-power impulse and DC magnetron co-sputtering (Ta-HiPIMS/ZrB2-DCMS) with x ≥ 0.2 are not only hard, but also tough. The films with x ≥ 0.2 show a self-organized columnar core/shell nanostructure (see Paper 3), in which crystalline hexagonal Zr-rich stoichiometric Zr1-xTaxB2 cores are surrounded by narrow dense, disordered Ta-rich shells that are B-deficient.The disordered shells have the structural characteristics of metallic-glass thin films, which exhibit both high strength and toughness. Hence, such a nanostructure combines the benefits of crystalline diboride nanocolumns, providing the high hardness, with the dense metallic-glasslike shells, which give rise to enhanced toughness.The mechanical properties of Zr1-xTaxBy thin films annealed in Ar atmosphere are studied as a function of annealing temperature Ta up to 1200 °C in Paper 4. 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.The oxidation resistance of TiBx thin films is addressed in Paper 5. In general, TMB2 suffer from rapid high-temperature oxidation, which is a critical issue for many applications. In this study, it is demonstrated that alloying the films with Al significantly increases the oxidation resistance with only a slight decrease in hardness. Contrary to bulk TiB2 synthesized by powder metallurgy processes, the oxidation products of TiB2 thin films do not contain the B2O3 oxide scale, which is usually observed below 1000 °C in air, and merely consists of a TiO2 phase. The enhanced oxidation resistance is attributed to the formation of a dense, protective Al-containing oxide scale, which considerably decreases the oxygen diffusion rate by suppressing the oxidecrystallites coarsening.To realize the goal of fully multifunctional diborides, Zr1-xCrxBy thin films grown by hybrid Cr-HiPIMS/ZrB2-DCMS co-sputtering are studied in Paper 6. These layers exhibit a unique combination of high hardness, toughness, wear, oxidation, and corrosion resistance.The last paper (Paper 7) addresses the issue of efficient energy and resource consumption in industrial processes, which United Nations defines as one of the sustainable development goals. The idea here is to replace the conventionally used thermal-energy flux from resistive heaters with the irradiation by high mass metal ions (Hf+), which results in more efficient energy transfer to the deposited layer. We deposited Ti0.67Hf0.33B1.7 films using hybrid HfB2-HiPIMS/TiB2-DCMS co-sputtering at substrate temperature not exceeding 100 °C. Results reveal that dense layers can be achieved with high hardness values (> 40 GPa) even though no external substrate heating was used during the process.
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| 5. |
- Bakhit, Babak, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Systematic compositional analysis of sputter-deposited boron-containing thin films
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. A. Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films. - : American Vacuum Society. - 0734-2101 .- 1520-8559. ; 39:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Boron-containing materials exhibit a unique combination of ceramic and metallic properties that are sensitively dependent on their given chemical bonding and elemental compositions. However, determining the composition, let alone bonding, with sufficient accuracy is cumbersome with respect to boron, being a light element that bonds in various coordinations. Here, we report on the comprehensive compositional analysis of transition-metal diboride (TMBx) thin films (TM = Ti, Zr, and Hf) by energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA). The films are grown on Si and C substrates by dc magnetron sputtering from stoichiometric TMB2 targets and have hexagonal AlB2-type columnar structures. EDX considerably overestimates B/TM ratios, x, compared to the other techniques, particularly for ZrBx. The B concentrations obtained by XPS strongly depend on the energy of Ar+ ions used for removing surface oxides and contaminants prior to analyses and are more reliable for 0.5 keV Ar+. ToF-ERDA, RBS, and NRA yield consistent compositions in TiBx. They also prove TiBx and ZrBx films to be homogeneous with comparable B/TM ratios for each film. However, ToF-ERDA, employing a 36-MeV 127I8+ beam, exhibits challenges in depth resolution and quantification of HfBx due to plural and multiple scattering and associated energy loss straggling effects. Compared to ToF-ERDA, RBS (for the film grown on C substrates) and NRA provide more reliable B/Hf ratios. Overall, a combination of methods is recommended for accurately pinpointing the compositions of borides that contain heavy transition metals.
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| 6. |
- Bonninghoff, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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ZrCuAlNi thin film metallic glass grown by high power impulse and direct current magnetron sputtering
- 2021
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Ingår i: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is a thin film deposition technique that combines the advantages of energetic deposition methods with magnetron sputtering. HiPIMS has so far mostly been utilized for the growth of crystalline coatings. Here we offer a study devoted to metallic glasses, in which we compare Zr60Cu25Al10Ni5 (target composition) thin films deposited by conventional direct current magnetron sputtering (DC) and HiPIMS. Film microstructure is strongly dependent on the choice of the sputtering method. The DC layers show a columnar structure with intra-columnar porosity, which provides a pathway for oxygen diffusion into the film. In contrast, HiPIMS films are column-free and possess about 4% higher density, as revealed by X-ray reflectivity. Electron diffraction reveals a decrease in average atomic spacing for the latter film of about 12%. These differences in film properties and morphology can be attributed to an increase in ad-atom mobility during HiPIMS caused by an increase in ion energy and flux of the film-forming species enabling a more efficient energy and momentum transfer to the growing film surface. The relative contribution of metallic and hence film forming ions to the overall ion flux of the DC plasma compared to the HiPIMS plasma is 13% and 96%, respectively. Additionally, a substrate bias causes the ionized film forming species during HiPIMS to arrive close to the substrate normal reducing shadowing effects. Different microstructures have a direct effect on the average roughness values, which for DC and HiPIMS films are 1.4 nm and 0.2 nm, respectively. The indentation hardness H and Youngs modulus E are higher for the HiPIMS sample, at 9.2 +/- 0.3 GPa and 131.6 +/- 3.6 GPa, respectively. The increase in hardness for the HiPIMS sample as compared to the DC sample (similar to 35%) can be attributed to higher film density, compressive (HiPIMS) as opposed to tensile (DC) stress and the lack of a columnar structure.
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| 7. |
- Chang, Jui-Che
(författare)
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Metastable orthorhombic Ta3N5 thin films grown by magnetron sputter epitaxy
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The semiconductor tritantalum pentanitride (Ta3N5) is a promising green-energy material for photoelectrolyzing water to produce oxygen and hydrogen owing to its proper bandgap of 2.0 ± 0.2 eV and band positions to redox potential of water. Compare with the conventional setup of water splitting, such as TiO2, Fe2O3, Cu2O, and WO3, the Ta3N5 shows a proper band gap, which leads to a theoretical efficiency as high as 15.9%. However, the complexity of the Ta-N system and the metastability of the Ta3N5 result in the limited research of the growth of high quality stoichiometric Ta3N5.Conventionally, the two-step growth of oxidation and nitridation of a metal Ta using thermal annealing in oxygen and ammonia environment is used to produce the Ta3N5. However, the amount of incorporated oxygen in the Ta3N5 samples and film’s thickness and interface are hardly to be controlled, and the use of ammonia as the nitridation gas is harmful to the environment. Hence, in this thesis work, the reactive magnetron sputtering is used to synthesis the Ta3N5, which demonstrates some advantages, such as possibility to grow on a substrate with nanostructure on the surface, a simplification of growth process, usage of environmental-friendly reactive gas, and even scaling up to the industrial application.The thesis presents a successful growth of orthorhombic Ta3N5-type Ta-O-N compound thin films on Si and sapphire substrates, specifically Ta3-xN5-yOy, using reactive magnetron sputtering with a gas mixture of Ar, N2, and O2. In the deposition process, the total working pressure was increasing from 5 to 40 mTorr, while keeping same partial pressure ratio (Ar: N2: O2 = 3: 2: 0.1). When the total pressure in the region between 5-30 mTorr, a low-degree fiber-textural Ta3-xN5-yOy films were grown. In addition, with the characterization of elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), the atomic fraction of O, N, and Ta of as-grown Ta3-xN5-yOy films were found varying from 0.02 to 0.15, 0.66 to 0.54, and 0.33 to 0.31, respectively, which leads to a b-lattice constant decrease around 1.3 %, shown in X-ray diffraction (XRD) results. For a total working pressure up to 40 mTorr, an amorphous O-rich Ta-O-N compound film was formed mixed with non-stoichiometric TaON and Ta2O5, which further raised the oxygen atomic fraction to ~0.48. The increasing total working pressure results in an increasing band gap from 2.22 to 2.66 eV of Ta3-xN5-yOy films, and further increasing to around 2.96 eV of O-rich Ta-O-N compound films. The mechanism of increasing oxygen atomic fraction in the film is founded correlated with the forming oxide on the Ta target surface during the deposition process due to the strong reactivity of O to Ta by the characterization of optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Moreover, the sputter yield was reduced due to the target poisoning, and which is evidenced by both plasma analysis and depth profile from ERDA.A further studies with the deposition parameters for nearly pure Ta3N5 films (oxygen atomic fraction ~2%) was performed using c-axis oriented Al2O3 substrate. In this research, it is found that a Ta2O5 seed layer and a small amount of oxygen were necessary for the growth of Ta3N5. Without the help of seed layer and oxygen, only metallic TaN phases, either mixture of ε- and δ- TaN or δ-TaN were grown, evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Furthermore, the structure and phase purity of Ta3N5-phase dominated films was found highly correlated with the thickness of the Ta2O5 seed layer. With the increasing thickness of the seed layer from 5, 9, to 17 nm, the composition of grown films was changed from 111-oriented δ-TaN mixed with c-axis oriented Ta3N5, c-axis oriented Ta3N5, to polycrystalline Ta3N5. In addition, the azimuthal φ-scans in grazing incident geometry demonstrates that the c-axis oriented Ta3N5 contained epitaxially three-variant-orientation domains, in which the a and b planes parallel to the m and a planes of c-axis oriented Al2O3. With the simulation of density functional theory (DFT), the growth of thin seed layers of orthorhombic Ta2O5 (β-Ta2O5) was found promoting by introducing a small amount of oxygen, after calculating the interplay between the topological and energy selection criteria. By the co-action of the mentioned criteria, this already grown Ta2O5 seed layer favored the growth of the orthorhombic Ta3N5 phase. Hence, the mechanism of the domain epitaxial growth of c-axis oriented Ta3N5 on c-axis oriented Al2O3 is attributed to the similar atomic arrangement Ta3N5(001) and β-Ta2O5(201) with a small lattice mismatch around of 2.6% and 4.5%, for the interface of film/seed layer and seed layer/substrate, respectively, and a favorable energetic interaction between involved materials.
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| 8. |
- Ghafoor, Naureen, et al.
(författare)
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Phase separation paths in metastable Zr1-xAlxN monolithic layers compared to multilayers with TiN: Growth versus annealing temperatures
- 2023
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Ingår i: Materialia. - : ELSEVIER SCI LTD. - 2589-1529. ; 28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metastable super-saturated Zr1_xAlxN alloys tend to phase separate into the equilibrium cubic (c) ZrN and wurtzite (w) AlN due to a deep miscibility gap. Transformation is shown here to follow distinctly different paths depending on if Zr1_xAlxN (x = 0.3 and 0.6) is sputter deposited as a single layer or multi-layered with TiN, and further varied by post-deposition annealing. Using in situ high-energy synchrotron wide-angle X-ray scattering and analytical transmission electron microscopy, surface segregation effects are compared to secondary phase transformations occurring in as-deposited layers during thermal annealing up to 1000 degrees C. For the primary phase transformation from the vapor phase, w-AlN nucleates and an AlN-ZrN labyrinthine structure evolves at elevated deposition temperature with semi-coherent interfaces over several nanometers, where the higher Al content narrows the structure in both single and multilayers. Transformation in thinner alloy layers is governed by epitaxial forces which stabilize single-phase c-Zr0.4Al0.6N, which enables c-Zr0.4Al0.6N/TiN superlattice growth at temperatures as low as 350 degrees C. Regardless of the decomposition route, the formation of c-AlN is impeded and w-AlN instantaneously forms during transformation. In contrast, isostructural decomposition into w-AlN and w-Zr (Al)N occurs in w-Zr0.4Al0.6N alloys during annealing.
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| 9. |
- Ghafoor, Naureen, et al.
(författare)
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Self-structuring in Zr1-xAlxN films as a function of composition and growth temperature
- 2018
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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.
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| 10. |
- Gharavi, Mohammad Amin, et al.
(författare)
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Phase Transformation and Superstructure Formation in (Ti-0.5, Mg-0.5)N Thin Films through High-Temperature Annealing
- 2021
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Ingår i: Coatings. - : MDPI. - 2079-6412. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- (Ti-0.5, Mg-0.5)N thin films were synthesized by reactive dc magnetron sputtering from elemental targets onto c-cut sapphire substrates. Characterization by theta-2 theta X-ray diffraction and pole figure measurements shows a rock-salt cubic structure with (111)-oriented growth and a twin-domain structure. The films exhibit an electrical resistivity of 150 m omega center dot cm, as measured by four-point-probe, and a Seebeck coefficient of -25 mu V/K. It is shown that high temperature (similar to 800 degrees C) annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere leads to the formation of a cubic LiTiO2-type superstructure as seen by high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. The corresponding phase formation is possibly influenced by oxygen contamination present in the as-deposited films resulting in a cubic superstructure. Density functional theory calculations utilizing the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functionals show that the LiTiO2-type TiMgN2 structure has a 0.07 eV direct bandgap.
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