Application of sputtered ceramic TiC/a:C thin films with different structures by changing the deposition parameters

Abstract

Titanium carbide-based thin films have been produced by DC magnetron sputtering. It was demonstrated that the same technology with changing of the deposition parameters, such as deposition temperature or power of Ti target, resulted in the preparation of TiC/a:C thin films with various structures. The structure of thin films and volume fraction of amorphous and crystal phases were precisely tailored by the control of deposition parameters. These ceramic nanocomposite TiC/a:C thin films according to their various structures, hence, their different mechanical, tribological, or wetting parameters can be used in wide range of applications.

Wear Study of a Magnetron-Sputtered TiC/a-C Nanocomposite Coating under Media-Lubricated Oscillating Sliding Conditions

“…It should explicitly be mentioned that such materials, in the form of thin films and bulk materials, generally exhibit further interesting physical and chemical properties, making them suitable candidates, for example, for electrical [18,60] and optical applications [63,64,98], medical and biofunctional surfaces [20,59,99,100], electrochemical storage [101,102] and other applications [103]. The opportunity to tune and tailor properties, functionalities and microstructure of such materials will have a huge impact on future materials research, advanced synthesis and utilization, as has been demonstrated recently for magnetron-sputter-deposited TiC/a-C thin films [104][105][106].…”