| 1. |
- Münger, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Destabilization and diffusion of two-dimensional close-packed Pt clusters on Pt(111) during film growth from the vapor phase
- 1998
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 318:1-2, s. 57-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cluster migration is known to be an important process during film growth at elevated temperatures, but relatively little quantitative data is available. We have used molecular dynamics simulations to follow the dynamics of small two-dimensional Pt clusters on Pt(lll) at 1000 K. While close-packed Pt-7 heptamers are extremely stable structures, the addition of a single-cluster vacancy or an on-top adatom immediately results in intracluster bond breaking, reconfigurations, rotations, the introduction of stacking faults, and greatly enhanced cluster-diffusion rates. Mapping center-of-mass motion for total simulation times > 145 ns revealed increases in cluster velocities by more than an order of magnitude with cluster migration occurring primarily by concerted motion and a novel diffusion mechanism involving double shearing of dimers/trimers. Contrary to some previous reports, edge-atom diffusion plays only a minor role. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.
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| 2. |
- Edström, Daniel, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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TiN film growth on misoriented TiN grains with simultaneous low-energy bombardment : Restructuring leading to epitaxy
- 2019
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 688
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We perform large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of TiN deposition at 1200 K on TiN substrates consisting of under-stoichiometric (N/Ti = 0.86) misoriented grains. The energy of incoming Ti atoms is 2 eV and that of incoming N atoms is 10 eV. The simulations show that misoriented grains are reoriented during the early stages of growth, after which the film grows 001 epitaxially and is nearly stoichiometric. The grain reorientation coincides with an increase in film N/Ti ratio. As the grains reorient, additional nitrogen can no longer be accommodated, and the film composition becomes stoichiometric as the overlayer grows epitaxially.
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| 3. |
- Greczynski, Grzegorz, et al.
(författare)
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Control of the metal/gas ion ratio incident at the substrate plane during high-power impulse magnetron sputtering of transition metals in Ar
- 2017
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 642, s. 36-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) of materials systems with metal/gas-atom mass ratios m(Me)/m(g) near, or less than, unity presents a challenge for precise timing of synchronous substrate-bias pulses to select metal-ion irradiation of the film and, thus, reduce stress while increasing layer density during low-temperature growth. The problem stems from high gas-ion fluxes Fg+(t) at the substrate, which overlap with metal-ion fluxes FMe+(t). We use energy-and time-dependent mass spectrometry to analyze FMe+(t) and Fg+(t) for Group IVb transition-metal targets in Ar and show that the time-and energy-integrated metal/gas ion ratio NMe+/NAr+ at the substrate can be controlled over a wide range by adjusting the HiPIMS pulse length tau(ON), while maintaining the peak target current density J(T,peak) constant. The effect is a consequence of severe gas rarefaction which scales with J(T)(t). For Ti-HiPIMS, terminating the discharge at the maximum J(T)(t), corresponding to tau(ON) = 30 mu s, there is an essentially complete loss of Ar+ ion intensity, yielding NTi+/NAr+ similar to 60. With increasing tau(ON),J(T)(t) decreases and NTi+/NAr+ gradually decays, due to Ar refill, to similar to 1 with tau(ON) = 120 s. Time-resolved ion-energy distribution functions confirm that the degree of rarefaction depends on tau(ON): for shorter pulses, tau ONHTC/SUBTAG amp;lt; FORTITLEHTC_RETAIN 60 [rs, the original sputtered-atom Sigmund-Thompson energy distributions are preserved long after the HiPIMS pulse, which is in distinct contrast to longer pulses, tau(ON) amp;gt;= 60 mu s, for which the energy distributions collapse into narrow ther-malized peaks. Thus, optimizing the HiPIMS pulse width minimizes the gas-ion flux to the substrate independent of m(Me)/m(g).
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| 4. |
- Greczynski, Grzegorz, et al.
(författare)
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Strain-free, single-phase metastable Ti0.38Al0.62N alloys with high hardness: metal-ion energy vs. momentum effects during film growth by hybrid high-power pulsed/dc magnetron cosputtering
- 2014
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 556, s. 87-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A hybrid deposition process consisting of reactive high-power pulsed and dc magnetron cosputtering (HIPIMS and DCMS) from Ti and Al targets is used to grow Ti1-xAlxN alloys, with x similar to 0.6, on Si(001) at 500 degrees C. Two series of films are deposited in which the energy and momentum of metal ions incident at the growing film are individually varied. In both sets of experiments, a negative bias V-s ranging from 20 to 280 V is applied to the substrate in synchronous, as determined by in-situ mass spectrometry, with the metal-ion-rich part of the HIPIMS pulse. Ion momentum is varied by switching the HIPIMS and dc power supplies to change the mass m and average charge of the primary metal ion. Al-HIPIMS/Ti-DCMS layers grown under Al+ (m(Al) = 26.98 amu) bombardment with 20 less than= V-s less than= 160 V are single-phase NaCl-structure alloys, while films deposited with V-s greater than 160 V are two-phase, cubic plus wurtzite. The corresponding critical average metal-ion momentum transfer per deposited atom for phase separation is less than p(d)*greater than greater than= 135 [eV-amu](1/2). In distinct contrast, layers deposited in the Ti-HIPIMS/Al-DCMS configuration with Ti+/Ti2+ (m(Ti) = 47.88 amu) ion irradiation are two-phase even with the lowest bias, V-s = 20 V, for which less than p(d)*greater than greater than 135 [eV-amu](1/2). Precipitation of wurtzite-structure AlN is primarily determined by the average metal-ion momentum transfer to the growing film, rather than by the deposited metal-ion energy. Ti-HIPIMS/Al-DCMS layers grown with V-s= 20 V are two-phase with compressive stress sigma= -2 GPa which increases to -6.2 GPa at V-s= 120 V; hardness H values range from 17.5 to 27 GPa and are directly correlated with sigma. However, for Al-HIPIMS/Ti-DCMS, the relatively low mass and single charge of the Al+ ion permits tuning properties of metastable cubic Ti0.38Al0.62 N by adjusting V-s to vary, for example, the hardness from 12 to 31 GPa while maintaining sigma similar to 0.
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| 5. |
- Kindlund, H., et al.
(författare)
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A review of the intrinsic ductility and toughness of hard transition-metal nitride alloy thin films
- 2019
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 688
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over the past decades, enormous effort has been dedicated to enhancing the hardness of refractory ceramic materials. Typically, however, an increase in hardness is accompanied by an increase in brittleness, which can result in intergranular decohesion when materials are exposed to high stresses. In order to avoid brittle failure, in addition to providing high strength, films should also be ductile, i.e., tough. However, fundamental progress in obtaining hard-yet-ductile ceramics has been slow since most toughening approaches are based on empirical trial-and-error methods focusing on increasing the strength and ductility extrinsically, with a limited focus on understanding thin-film toughness as an inherent physical property of the material. Thus, electronic structure investigations focusing on the origins of ductility vs. brittleness are essential in understanding the physics behind obtaining both high strength and high plastic strain in ceramics films. Here, we review recent progress in experimental validation of density functional theory predictions on toughness enhancement in hard ceramic films, by increasing the valence electron concentration, using examples from the V1-xWxN and V1-xMoxN alloy systems.
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