Influence of nitrogen flow rate on growth of TiAlN films prepared by DC magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Thin films of TiAlN were deposited on (111) oriented silicon single crystal substrates from a composite Ti-Al target by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at 773 K under various N 2 flow rates. Substantial influence of N 2 flow rate on the rate of deposition, grain size, crystallinity, composition, hardness and resistivity was observed. While the deposition rate, grain size and the ratio of concentration of Ti to Al of the deposited TiAlN films decreased with increasing N 2 flow rate, the resistivity of the films increased with increasing N 2 flow rate.

Tribological properties and deformation mechanism of TiAlN coating sliding with various counterbodies

“…Small grains are locally surrounded by bigger grains. These small grains are formed due to secondary nucleation that does not further grow due to high interface energy [11,12]. In addition, growth of these small grains is restricted by surrounding larger grains.…”

Structural properties and electrical resistivity of TiNx and Ti1−xAlxN films prepared by reactive dc magnetron sputtering: Effect of nitrogen flowrate

“…28 While TiN x films are single phasic at all N 2 flowrates, the Ti 12x Al x N films are biphasic at a N 2 flowrate of 2 sccm and contain Ti(Al)N (NaCl) and Al(Ti)N (hexagonal close packed) phases. 21 However, at N 2 flowrates >5 sccm the Ti 12x Al x N films exhibit Ti(Al)N (NaCl) structure. At flowrates > 5 sccm of nitrogen, both types of films exhibit single phases.…”

PHOTOACOUSTIC STUDIES ON TiAlN NANOSTRUCTURED THIN FILMS

“…The design of the composite target and detailed experimental procedures are reported in Ref. 12, The summary of experimental conditions is given in Table 1.…”

“…Albert Irudayaraj et al 12 have recently studied only the influence of nitrogen flow rates on the growth of TiAlN films prepared by the dc magnetron sputtering technique and reported that the grain size of TiAlN thin films decreases with an increase in N 2 flow rates in sccm, and did not study any other properties. However, the variation of thermal properties with grain size of the TiAlN thin films for various N 2 flow rates is not reported in the literature.…”