In this study, 16-nm-thick CuSi films were deposited at room temperature by DC magnetron sputtering. The thermal, optical, and microstructural properties of CuSi films were investigated in detail. Moreover, the CuSi film was further used as a recording layer for write-once blu-ray disc (BD-R) applications. Based on the result of the reflectivity–temperature measurement, the CuSi layer had a decrease in the reflectivity between 180 and 290 °C. The as-deposited CuSi film possessed the Cu3Si phase. After annealing at 300 °C, the Si atoms existed in the CuSi film segregated and crystallized to the cubic Si phase. The activation energy of Si crystallization in the CuSi film was determined to be 1.2 eV. The dynamic tests presented that the BD-R containing the CuSi recording layer had minimum jitter values of 7.0% at 6 mW and 7.2% at 9 mW, respectively, for 1× and 4× recording speeds. This reveals that the CuSi film has great potential in BD-R applications.

In this study, TiN thin lms have been prepared as the coating layers on Al 2 O 3 ceramic substrates to enhance the mechanical properties of Al 2 O 3 ceramics. TiN lms with various thicknesses of 0.5 and 1 μm were deposited by DC sputtering at room temperature. The TiN lm prepared on the Al 2 O 3 substrate has a columnar structure without large bumps or steps formed on the lm s surface. Without the TiN coating, the average friction coef cient of the Al 2 O 3 substrate was 0.51. As 0.5-and 1-μm-thick TiN lms were coated on Al 2 O 3 substrates, the average friction coef cients of these two samples reduced to 0.36 and 0.32, respectively, revealing the tribological characteristics of Al 2 O 3 ceramic was enhanced with the TiN coating. Additionally, the 1-μm-thick TiN/Al 2 O 3 sample possesses a slightly higher attrition resistance than that of the 0.5-μm-thick TiN/Al 2 O 3 sample, and this can be also con rmed by performing the elemental mapping method on the wear-treated samples. From the adhesion performances, we observed no critical load of L C2 appeared in these two samples during the scratch test, while the critical load of L C1 values were 11 and 9 N for 0.5-μm-thick TiN/Al 2 O 3 and 1-μm-thick TiN/Al 2 O 3 , respectively. Due to the increment of TiN thickness, the internal stress formed in the lm would increase. This is the reason why the 1-μm-thick TiN/Al 2 O 3 sample has a lower critical load of L C1 . Obviously, the 0.5-μm-thick TiN lm coated on the Al 2 O 3 substrate has a better adhesion characteristic. According to these results, the sputtered TiN coating is indeed useful for improving the mechanical properties of Al 2 O 3 ceramics, in particular for the 0.5-μm-thick TiN coating. [