Reactive pulsed laser deposition of thin TiN films

Chemical composition of ZrC thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

“…The mean free path of CH 4 gas molecules at this pressure [21] is around 26 cm, comparable to the distance between the target and substrate. It is known that the use of an atmosphere during PLD results in a decrease of the energy of the atomic species reaching the substrate [12], which could increase the density of the nucleation sites and decrease the adatoms surface mobility along the surface of the film [22]. Another factor that could be important for the deposition of ZrC films is the time formation of a monolayer of adsorbed molecules.…”

“…It appears that is rather difficult to obtain high quality ZrC films, because the same properties that make ZrC very attractive for applications, such as high melting point (T m = 3445 8C), low sputtering or evaporation rates, together with Zr high affinity for oxygen [5,7,10,11] are rendering the deposition of thin films difficult. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, which is known to allow for a decrease of the deposition temperature with respect to other techniques while preserving the high quality of the grown films [12,13], has been successfully employed to deposit ZrC films [14][15][16][17][18]. However, the very demanding deposition conditions required to obtain high quality ZrC films, such as substrate temperatures in excess of 700 8C, concomitant with a vacuum better than 2 Â 10 À6 Pa and a laser fluence of around 10 J/cm 2 are quite challenging to be easily implemented on a larger scale for industrial applications.…”

Theoretical modelling of phenomena in the pulsed-laser deposition process: Application to Ti targets ablation in low-pressure N2

“…For the particular case of TiN we deposited for gas pressures of 0.7-7 Pa, most experimental studies indicate that the chemical reaction between the ablated Ti atoms and the N 2 molecules adsorbed on the collector takes place prevalently on it. 40 Therefore, one can reasonably assume in a first approximation and without going into details concerning the chemical reaction route, that an evaluation of the thickness profile of the deposited layer can be obtained by supposing that all deposited Ti atoms participate in the formation of a chemical compound, TiN. For obvious reasons, this hypothesis results in the prediction of a deposited thickness slightly larger than the actual ͑experimentally determined͒ value.…”

Thickness Influence on In Vitro Biocompatibility of Titanium Nitride Thin Films Synthesized by Pulsed Laser Deposition

“…TiN films synthesized by ion beam deposition [ 12 ], direct current magnetron sputtering [ 13 ], cathodic arc evaporation [ 14 ], pulsed laser deposition [ 15 , 16 ], chemical precursor synthesis [ 17 ], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and plasma-assisted CVD techniques [ 18 , 19 ] are used for a wide variety of applications, including biomedical ones [ 20 , 21 ], with specific demands for improving the wear resistance, adhesion to the substrate and fatigue [ 22 ]. After applying TiN coatings, the biocompatibility of implants manufactured from various metallic alloys (such as cobalt-chromium, chromium-nickel or titanium alloys) is improved, increasing the wear and corrosion resistance and avoiding allergic reactions that may occur when a metallic implant is introduced inside the human body [ 23 , 24 ].…”