Sputter-deposited thin films of TiZrV are fully activated after 24 h "in situ" heating at 180 °C. This activation temperature is the lowest of some 18 different getter coatings studied so far, and it allows the use of the getter thin film technology with aluminium alloy vacuum chambers, which cannot be baked at temperatures higher than 200 °C.An updated review is given of the most recent results obtained on TiZrV coatings, covering the following topics: influence of the elemental composition and crystal structure on activation temperature, discharge gas trapping and degassing, dependence of pumping speed and surface saturation capacity on film morphology, ageing consequent to activation-air venting cycles and ultimate pressures. Furthermore, the results obtained when exposing a coated particle beam chamber to synchrotron radiation in a real accelerator environment (ESRF Grenoble) are presented and discussed.

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Zirconium nitride (ZrN) coatings were deposited on 1 μm finish high speed steel and 316L stainless steel test coupons. Cathodic Arc (CA) and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) + Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering (UBM) techniques were utilized to deposit coatings. CA plasmas are known to be rich in metal and gas ions of the depositing species as well as macroparticles (droplets) emitted from the arc sports. Combining HIPIMS technique with UBM in the same deposition process facilitated increased ion bombardment on the depositing species during coating growth maintaining high deposition rate. Prior to coating deposition, substrates were pretreated with Zr+ rich plasma, for both arc deposited and HIPIMS deposited coatings, which led to a very high scratch adhesion value (LC2) of 100 N. Characterization results revealed the overall thickness of the coatings in the range of 2.5 μm with hardness in the range of 30–40 GPa depending on the deposition technique. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and tribological experiments such as dry sliding wear tests and corrosion studies have been utilized to study the effects of ion bombardment on the structure and properties of these coatings. In all the cases, HIPIMS assisted UBM deposited coating fared equal or better than the arc deposited coatings, the reasons being discussed in this paper. Thus H+U coatings provide a good alternative to arc deposited where smooth, dense coatings are required and macrodroplets cannot be tolerated.

Effects of thermal treatment on the modification of microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti 1)x Al x N thin films (x ¼ 0.4-0.7) were investigated. It was found that the Al content plays a major role on the thermal stability and change of hardness following to heating under vacuum. The samples with the Al content x < 0.6 showed a reduction of hardness after annealing for 30 min at 1000°C. The hardness difference between the as deposited and thermally treated samples decreased when the Al content of the films was increased. In contrast, the Al-rich samples (x > 0.6) showed a nanocomposite structure and their hardness increased after thermal treatment. Microstructural analysis by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the reduction of hardness in single-phase coatings is due to partial relaxation of compressive stress while the increase of hardness in the nanocomposite coatings arises from coherency stresses developed during thermal treatment.