| 1. |
- Greczynski, Grzegorz, et al.
(författare)
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Metal versus rare-gas ion irradiation during Ti1-xAlxN film growth by hybrid high power pulsed magnetron/dc magnetron co-sputtering using synchronized pulsed substrate bias
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. A. Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films. - : American Vacuum Society. - 0734-2101 .- 1520-8559. ; 30:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metastable NaCl-structure Ti1-xAlxN is employed as a model system to probe the effects of metal versus rare-gas ion irradiation during film growth using reactive high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) of Al and dc magnetron sputtering of Ti. The alloy film composition is chosen to be x = 0.61, near the kinetic solubility limit at the growth temperature of 500 degrees C. Three sets of experiments are carried out: a -60V substrate bias is applied either continuously, in synchronous with the full HIPIMS pulse, or in synchronous only with the metal-rich-plasma portion of the HIPIMS pulse. Alloy films grown under continuous dc bias exhibit a thickness-invariant small-grain, two-phase nanostructure (wurtzite AlN and cubic Ti1-xAlxN) with random orientation, due primarily to intense Ar+ irradiation leading to Ar incorporation (0.2 at. %), high compressive stress (-4.6 GPa), and material loss by resputtering. Synchronizing the bias with the full HIPIMS pulse results in films that exhibit much lower stress levels (-1.8GPa) with no measureable Ar incorporation, larger grains elongated in the growth direction, a very small volume fraction of wurtzite AlN, and random orientation. By synchronizing the bias with the metal-plasma phase of the HIPIMS pulses, energetic Ar+ ion bombardment is greatly reduced in favor of irradiation predominantly by Al+ ions. The resulting films are single phase with a dense competitive columnar structure, strong 111 orientation, no measureable trapped Ar concentration, and even lower stress (-0.9 GPa). Thus, switching from Ar+ to Al+ bombardment, while maintaining the same integrated incident ion/metal ratio, eliminates phase separation, minimizes renucleation during growth, and reduces the high concentration of residual point defects, which give rise to compressive stress.
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| 2. |
- Greczynski, Grzegorz, et al.
(författare)
-
Novel strategy for low-temperature, high-rate growth of dense, hard, and stress-free refractory ceramic thin films
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. A. Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 0734-2101 .- 1520-8559. ; 32:4, s. 041515-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Growth of fully dense refractory thin films by means of physical vapor deposition (PVD) requires elevated temperatures T-s to ensure sufficient adatom mobilities. Films grown with no external heating are underdense, as demonstrated by the open voids visible in cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images and by x-ray reflectivity results; thus, the layers exhibit low nanoindentation hardness and elastic modulus values. Ion bombardment of the growing film surface is often used to enhance densification; however, the required ion energies typically extract a steep price in the form of residual rare-gas-ion-induced compressive stress. Here, the authors propose a PVD strategy for the growth of dense, hard, and stress-free refractory thin films at low temperatures; that is, with no external heating. The authors use TiN as a model ceramic materials system and employ hybrid high-power pulsed and dc magnetron co-sputtering (HIPIMS and DCMS) in Ar/N-2 mixtures to grow dilute Ti1-xTaxN alloys on Si(001) substrates. The Ta target driven by HIPIMS serves as a pulsed source of energetic Ta+/Ta2+ metal-ions, characterized by in-situ mass and energy spectroscopy, while the Ti target operates in DCMS mode (Ta-HIPIMS/Ti-DCMS) providing a continuous flux of metal atoms to sustain a high deposition rate. Substrate bias V-s is applied in synchronous with the Ta-ion portion of each HIPIMS pulse in order to provide film densification by heavy-ion irradiation (m(Ta) = 180.95 amu versus m(Ti) = 47.88 amu) while minimizing Ar+ bombardment and subsequent trapping in interstitial sites. Since Ta is a film constituent, primarily residing on cation sublattice sites, film stress remains low. Dense Ti0.92Ta0.08N alloy films, 1.8 mu m thick, grown with T-s less than= 120 degrees C (due to plasma heating) and synchronized bias, V-s = 160 V, exhibit nanoindentation hardness H = 25.9 GPa and elastic modulus E = 497 GPa compared to 13.8 and 318 GPa for underdense Ti-HIPIMS/Ti-DCMS TiN reference layers (T-s less than 120 degrees C) grown with the same V-s, and 7.8 and 248 GPa for DCMS TiN films grown with no applied bias (T-s less than 120 degrees C). Ti0.92Ta0.08N residual stress is low, sigma = -0.7 GPa, and essentially equal to that of Ti-HIPIMS/Ti-DCMS TiN films grown with the same substrate bias.
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| 3. |
- Hsu, Tun-Wei, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of substrate rotation during AlSi-HiPIMS/Ti-DCMS co-sputtering growth of TiAlSiN coatings on phase content, microstructure, and mechanical properties
- 2023
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Ingår i: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : Elsevier. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 453
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A combined high-power impulse and dc magnetron co-sputtering (HiPIMS/DCMS) technique is used to deposit Ti0.6Al0.32Si0.08N films with 1-fold substrate table rotation. Layers are grown at two different substrate-target separations, two different rotational speeds, and with different values of substrate bias. The aim is to study the role of (1) overlap between ion and neutral fluxes generated from HiPIMS and DCMS sources, respectively, and (2) the subplantation range of low-mass ions. Results from X-ray diffractometry highlight the necessity of flux intermixing in the formation of the metastable B1-structured TiAlSiN solid solutions. All films grown at short target-to-substrate distance contain the hexagonal AlN phase, as there is essentially no overlap between HiPIMS and DCMS fluxes, thus the Al+ and Si+ subplantation is very limited. Under conditions of high flux intermixing corresponding to larger target-to-substrate distance, no w-AlN forms irrespective of rotational speed (1 or 3 rpm) and bias amplitude (120 or 480 V), indicating that the role of Al+/Si+ and Ti flux overlap is crucial for the phase formation during film growth by HiPIMS/DCMS with substrate rotation. This conclusion is further supported by the fact that the reduction of the bilayer thickness with increasing the target-to-substrate distance (hence increasing flux overlap) is larger for films grown with higher amplitude of the substrate bias, indicative of more efficient Al+/Si+ subplantation into the c-TiN phase. Single-phase films with the hardness close to that of layers grown with stationary substrate table can be achieved, however, at the expense of higher compressive stress.
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