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| 2. |
- Eriksson, Anders, et al.
(author)
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Arc deposition of Ti–Si–C–N thin films from binary and ternary cathodes — Comparing sources of C
- 2012
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In: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : Elsevier. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 213, s. 145-154
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ti–Si–C–N thin films with composition of 1–11 at.% Si and 1–20 at.% C have been deposited onto cemented carbide substrates by arcing Ti–Si cathodes in a CH4 + N2 gas mixture and, alternatively, through arcing Ti–Si–C cathodes in N2. Films of comparable compositions from the two types of cathodes have similar structure and properties. Hence, C can be supplied as either plasma ions generated from the cathode or atoms from the gas phase with small influence on the structural evolution. Over the compositional range obtained, the films were dense and cubic-phase nanocrystalline, as characterized by X-ray diffraction, ion beam analysis, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The films have high hardness (30–40 GPa by nanoindentation) due to hardening from low-angle grain boundaries on the nanometer scale and lattice defects such as growth-induced vacancies and alloying element interstitials.
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| 4. |
- Frodelius, Jenny, 1978-
(author)
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Thick and Thin Ti2AlC Coatings
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This Thesis explores the deposition techniques of magnetron sputtering and high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying for Ti2AlC as a promising high-temperature material. Magnetron sputtering aims at producing thin (≤1 μm) Ti2AlC films of high crystal quality for use as a model system in understanding the material’s basic properties. HVOF is a new method for deposition of thick (≥200 μm) coatings by spraying Ti2AlC powder, with the aim of transferring the good bulk properties to coatings. The oxidation behavior of Ti2AlC coatings has been investigated for temperatures up to 1200 °C in air. As-deposited Ti2AlC(0001) thin films decompose into TiC during vacuum annealing at 700 °C by out-diffusion of Al as shown by x-ray diffraction analysis. The release of Al starts already at 500 °C in ambient air as driven by aluminum oxide formation on the film surface where the oxide initially forms clusters as observed by electron microscopy. While sputtering from a Ti2AlC target is simpler than by using different elemental targets, the resulting film composition differs from the target stoichiometry. This is due to differences in energy and angular distribution of the sputtered species and evaporation of Al at substrate temperatures above 700 °C. The composition can be compensated for by adding Ti to bind the Al and obtain phase-pure Ti2AlC coatings. For HVOF, I demonstrate how the total gas flow of a H2/O2 mixture (441-953 liter/min) and the powder grain size (30-56 μm) determine the thickness, density, and microstructure of the coatings. High gas flow and small grain size yield thick coatings of 210 μm with a low porosity of 2-8 % and a tensile stress of ≥80 MPa. A fraction of the Ti2AlC powder decomposes during spraying into TiC, Ti3AlC2, and Ti-Al alloys. The coatings also contain as much as 25 at.% O since the powder partly oxidizes during the spraying process. Increasing the powder size and decreasing the total gas flow yield a higher amount of Ti2AlC, but produces thinner coatings with lower cohesion. Post-annealing of the coatings at 900 °C in vacuum increases the Ti2AlC content due to a reversible phase transformation of the as-sprayed material. The high oxygen content, however, hinders the coating to completely transform into Ti2AlC and deteriorates its oxidation resistance. The work thus offers insights to the key parameters for optimizing Ti2AlC coating processing.
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| 5. |
- Ghafoor, Naureen, et al.
(author)
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Nanolabyrinthine ZrAlN thin films by self-organization of interwoven single-crystal cubic and hexagonal phases
- 2013
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In: APL Materials. - New York, USA : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 2166-532X. ; 1:2, s. 022105-1-022105-6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Self-organization on the nanometer scale is a trend in materials research. Thermodynamic driving forces may, for example, yield chessboard patterns in metal alloys[Y. Ni and A. G. Khachaturyan, Nature Mater. 8, 410–414 (2009)] or nitrides [P. H.Mayrhofer, A. Horling, L. Karlsson, J. Sj ¨ ol¨ en, T. Larsson, and C. Mitterer, Appl. ´Phys. Lett. 83, 2049 (2003)] during spinodal decomposition. Here, we explore theZrN-AlN system, which has one of the largest positive enthalpies of mixing amongthe transition metal aluminum nitrides [D. Holec, R. Rachbauer, L. Chen, L. Wang,D. Luefa, and P. H. Mayrhofer, Surf. Coat. Technol. 206, 1698–1704 (2011); B.Alling, A. Karimi, and I. Abrikosov, Surf. Coat. Technol. 203, 883–886 (2008)].Surprisingly, a highly regular superhard (36 GPa) two-dimensional nanolabyrinthinestructure of two intergrown single crystal phases evolves during magnetron sputter thin film synthesis of Zr0.64Al0.36N/MgO(001). The self-organization is surfacedriven and the synergistic result of kinetic limitations, where the enthalpy reductionbalances both investments in interfacial and elastic energies.
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| 6. |
- Goyenola, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
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Theoretical prediction and synthesis of CSxFy thin films
- 2016
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In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 120:17, s. 9527-9534
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A new carbon-based compound: CSxFy was addressed by density functional theory calculations and synthesized by reactive magnetron sputtering. Geometry optimizations and energy calculations were performed on graphene-like model systems containing sulfur and fluorine atoms. It is shown that [S+F] concentrations in the range of 0−10 at.%, structural ordered characteristics similar to graphene pieces containing ring defects are energetically feasible. The modeling predicts that CSxFy thin films with graphite and fullerene-like characteristics may be obtained for the mentioned concentration range. Accordingly, thin films were synthesized from a graphite solid target and sulfur hexafluoride as reactive gas. In agreement with the theoretical prediction, transmission electron microscopy characterization and selected area electron diffraction confirmed the presence of small ordered clusters with graphitic features in a sample containing 0.4 at.% of S and 3.4 at.% of F.
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| 7. |
- Halim, Joseph, et al.
(author)
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Transparent Conductive Two-Dimensional Titanium Carbide Epitaxial Thin Films
- 2014
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In: Chemistry of Materials. - : American Chemical Society. - 0897-4756 .- 1520-5002. ; 26:7, s. 2374-2381
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Since the discovery of graphene, the quest for two-dimensional (2D) materials has intensified greatly. Recently, a new family of 2D transition metal carbides and carbonitrides (MXenes) was discovered that is both conducting and hydrophilic, an uncommon combination. To date MXenes have been produced as powders, flakes, and colloidal solutions. Herein, we report on the fabrication of similar to 1 x 1 cm(2) Ti3C2 films by selective etching of Al, from sputter-deposited epitaxial Ti3AlC2 films, in aqueous HF or NH4HF2. Films that were about 19 nm thick, etched with NH4HF2, transmit similar to 90% of the light in the visible-to-infrared range and exhibit metallic conductivity down to similar to 100 K. Below 100 K, the films resistivity increases with decreasing temperature and they exhibit negative magnetoresistance-both observations consistent with a weak localization phenomenon characteristic of many 2D defective solids. This advance opens the door for the use of MXenes in electronic, photonic, and sensing applications.
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| 8. |
- Halim, Joseph, et al.
(author)
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X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Characterization of Two-Dimensional Titanium Metal Carbides (MXenes)
- 2014
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Herein, we report X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis for cold pressed exfoliated 2D nanocrystals of transition metal carbides, MXenes. MXenes are a recently discovered family of 2D materials produced by selective chemical etching of the A element from MAX phases which are ternary metal carbides and nitrides. The latter has the formula of Mn+1AXn, where M is an early transition metal, A is an A-group element, and X is C and/or N. This study is a comparison between two MXenes, Ti3C2Tx and Ti2CTx, where Tx stands for surface termination groups such as –O, –OH, and –F. Ti3C2Tx and Ti2CTx were prepared by immersion of Ti3AlC2 and Ti2AlC powders in 50% conc. HF. A thorough XPS analysis was performed through peak fitting of high resolution XPS spectra and valence band, VB, spectra analysis. The effect of Ar sputtering as well as the number of layers n was the primarily interest of this study. According to the peak fitting analysis, both phases contain the following species, Ti–C, C–C, Ti–F, Ti–O and Ti–OH resulting in the following chemical formulas: Ti3C2(OH)x(O)y(F)z and Ti2C(OH)x(O)y(F)z. Comparing the VB spectra with the DOS calculations show the valance band spectra is actually a mixture of MXene with various terminations of OH, O and F. Before Ar+ sputtering both phases show a large percentage of fluorinated-TiO2 which is due to MXene surface oxidation as well as CHx, C-O and COO groups arising from either surface contaminations or due to drying the etched powders in ethanol after washing the powder of the HF acid. According to the VB spectra, it is shown that the fluorinated TiO2 is actually a mixture of anatase and rutile. The number of layers, n, also plays a role; the lower n, the more the MXene is prone to oxidation.
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| 9. |
- Johnson, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Blind deconvolution of time-of-flight mass spectra from atom probe tomography
- 2013
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In: Ultramicroscopy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-2723 .- 0304-3991. ; 132, s. 60-64
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A major source of uncertainty in compositional measurements in atom probe tomography stems from the uncertainties of assigning peaks or parts of peaks in the mass spectrum to their correct identities. In particular, peak overlap is a limiting factor, whereas an ideal mass spectrum would have peaks at their correct positions with zero broadening. Here, we report a method to deconvolute the experimental mass spectrum into such an ideal spectrum and a system function describing the peak broadening introduced by the held evaporation and detection of each ion. By making the assumption of a linear and time-invariant behavior, a system of equations is derived that describes the peak shape and peak intensities. The model is fitted to the observed spectrum by minimizing the squared residuals, regularized by the maximum entropy method. For synthetic data perfectly obeying the assumptions, the method recovered peak intensities to within +/- 0.33 at%. The application of this model to experimental APT data is exemplified with Fe-Cr data. Knowledge of the peak shape opens up several new possibilities, not just for better overall compositional determination, but, e.g., for the estimation of errors of ranging due to peak overlap or peak separation constrained by isotope abundances. (C) 2013 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.
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| 10. |
- Johnson, Lars, 1983-
(author)
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Inside The Miscibility Gap : Nanostructuring and Phase Transformations in Hard Nitride Coatings
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is concerned with self-organization phenomena in hard and wear resistant transition-metal nitride coatings, both during growth and during post deposition thermal annealing. The uniting physical principle in the studied systems is the immiscibility of their constituent parts, which leads, under certain conditions, to structural variations on the nanoscale. The study of such structures is challenging, and during this work atom probe tomography (apt) was developed as a viable tool for their study. Ti0.33Al0.67N was observed to undergo spinodal decomposition upon annealing to 900 °C, by the use of apt in combination with electron microscopy. The addition of C to TiSiN was found to promote and refine the feather-like microstructure common in the system, with an ensuing decrease in thermal stability. An age-hardening of 36 % was measured in arc evaporated Zr0.44Al0.56N1.20, which was a nanocomposite of cubic, hexagonal, and amorphous phases. Magnetron sputtering of Zr0.64Al0.36N at 900 °C resulted in a self-organized and highly ordered growth of a two-dimensional two-phase labyrinthine structure of cubic ZrN and wurtzite AlN.The structure was analyzed and recovered by apt, although the ZrN phase suffered from severe trajectory aberrations, rendering only the Al signal useable.The initiation of the organized growth was found to occur by local nucleation at 5-8 nm from the substrate, before which random fluctuations in Al/Zr content increased steadily from the substrate. Finally, the decomposition of solid-solution TiB0.33N0.67 was found, by apt, to progress through the nucleation of TiB0.5N0.5 and TiN, followed by the transformation of the former into hexagonal TiB2.
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