Optical and electrical properties of hard (Hf,Nb,Ti,V,Zr)Nx thin films

Reactive HiTUS TiNbVTaZrHf-Nx Coatings: Structure, Composition and Mechanical Properties

“…In (near-)stoichiometric HT-6TM-6N coating, narrow and intensive XRD peaks typical for crystalline materials appeared, especially in the GI case ( Figure 12 c. The main GI and B-B peaks at ~41° and ~59° approximately overlapped with the (200) and (220) reflections of fcc nitrides reported in the literature [ 15 , 48 , 51 ] and with those in TaNbN 2 (ICDD: 01–089-5133) , HfTiN 2 , TiNbN 2, and/or even single nitrides (e.g., TiN, TaN or NbN). The existence of one dominant peak at 41° implied a texture with [100] orientation.…”

“…In the metallic TiNbVTaZrHf alloy coating, two to three very wide peaks were present both in B-B and GI configurations ( Figure 12 a), and they overlapped very well with the earlier azimuthal integral SAED ( Figure 4 ). All three diffractograms implied an amorphous structure similar to that in DCMS HfNbTiVZr coating deposited at room temperature [ 47 ] or with a low (16 at%) content of nitrogen [ 48 ]. The size of crystallites of only 1 nm, roughly estimated by the Williamson-Hall method, complied with our TEM observations ( Figure 4 ).…”

“…The size of crystallites of only 1 nm, roughly estimated by the Williamson-Hall method, complied with our TEM observations ( Figure 4 ). The amorphous structure, on the other hand, was surprising because a crystalline body-centered cubic (bcc) structure is typical for multicomponent TM alloys [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Moreover, substrate temperatures above 275 °C were reported to overcome the effect of suppressed diffusivity and rapid cooling during magnetron deposition, producing and promoting crystallization in these systems [ 47 ].…”

“…In our case, the absence of crystallization at a 300 °C substrate temperature in our case can be related to the presence of Ta and the difference in power densities between HiTUS and DCMS. The peak positions of the current coating could be compared with those in similar crystalline DCMS TM coatings and with the results of calculations for bcc structures with the lattice parameters a = 0.341–0.342 nm [ 47 , 48 ], 0.336 nm [ 49 ], and 0.338 nm [ 50 ] and intermetallic ZrTiNb phase (ICDD: 03–065-7192). The approximate peak positions for the fcc structure corresponding to crystalline single and binary nitrides were also added.…”

“…Azimuthal integral SAED principally agreed with both X-ray diffractograms, but a shift of the main peak position toward lower 2θ, shoulder above 40°, and additional peaks at 60° and 67° were emphasized. XRD peaks were between the positions of fcc peaks in nitrides (HfTiN 2 , (ICDD:03–065-9258), HfTaN 2 (ICDD:03–065-9257) , NbTiN 2 (ICDD:01–089-5134), or TiN (ICDD: 00–038-1420), and NbN (ICDD: 00–038-1155)) and in intermetallics [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. The size of crystallites obtained by the Williamson-Hall method was around 2 nm, and the microstrains of around 2% corresponded to microstresses over 5.5 GPa.…”