Growth and Study of Plasma Assisted Nanostructured Hard Tantalum Nitride Thin Films

Abstract

Plasma assisted growth of tantalum nitride films in Mather type dense plasma focus device is reported in the current research. Effects of variation in number of plasma focus shots on structural, compositional and mechanical characteristics of synthesized tantalum nitride thin films have been investigated. Better crystallinity with thermally assisted coagulated growth patterns are observed for films synthesized by maximum (fifteen) plasma focus shots. Nano-hardness of films is observed to increase with increasing plasma focus shots whereas the maximum nanohardness of 16.24 ± 01.54 GPa is observed for film synthesized with fifteen plasma focus shots. Film roughness investigated by atomic force microscopy revealed influence of variation in plasma focus shots on surface roughness which is found to be increased with increase in plasma focus shots.