Surface modification of Ti–Al targets during cathodic arc evaporation

Rafaja, David; Polzer, Conrad; Schreiber, Gerhard; Polcik, P.; Kathrein, M.

doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2011.05.023

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The formation of intermetallic phases in the erosion zone of the Al-Cr cathodes operated in N 2 and O 2 atmospheres is comparable to reports in literature investigating Al-Cr-(Si) [20,21,26], Ti-Si [22,23] or Ti-Al [24] cathodes. The Ti containing cathodes were exposed to arc discharges in N 2 atmosphere and the formation of nitrides in the modified layer in addition to intermetallic phases was noticed.…”

Section: B Cathode Poisoningsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…The thickness of the modified layer was proportional to the heat conductivity of the cathode material. More recently, the surfaces of a series of cathode materials used for the synthesis of hard coatings has been studied including Al-Cr [20,21], Ti-Si [22,23] and Ti-Al [10,24] as well as Ti 3 SiC 2 [25] and Al-Cr-Si [26]. The Al-Cr-based systems were exposed to an arc plasma in O 2 atmosphere, whereas the Ti-based cathodes were used in N 2 containing arc discharges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Erosion behavior of composite Al-Cr cathodes in cathodic arc plasmas in inert and reactive atmospheres

Franz

Martín

Hawranek

et al. 2016

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

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AlxCr1−x composite cathodes with Al contents of x = 0.75, 0.5 and 0.25 were exposed to cathodic arc plasmas in Ar, N2 and O2 atmospheres and their erosion behaviour was studied. Cross-sectional analysis of the elemental distribution of the near-surface zone in the cathodes by scanning electron microscopy revealed the formation of a modified layer for all cathodes and atmospheres. Due to intermixing of Al and Cr in the heat-affected zone, intermetallic Al-Cr phases formed as evidenced by X-ray diffraction analysis. Cathode poisoning effects in the reactive N2 and O2 atmospheres were non-uniform as a result of the applied magnetic field configuration. With the exception of oxide islands on Al-rich cathodes, reactive layers were absent in the circular erosion zone, while nitrides and oxides formed in the less eroded centre region of the cathodes.

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Section: B Cathode Poisoningsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Erosion behavior of composite Al-Cr cathodes in cathodic arc plasmas in inert and reactive atmospheres

Franz

Martín

Hawranek

et al. 2016

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

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“…Furthermore, in our previous study, 20 we showed that possible formation of different intermetallic Ti-Al phases on the cathode surface, 27 would lead to minor changes in the plasma properties, due to very similar physical properties of the cathode components. Therefore, it can be assumed that changes in plasma properties upon introduction of Ar are caused by collisional processes accompanying the expanding plasma.…”

Section: Effect Of Cathode Composition and Pressure On Ion Kinetic Enmentioning

confidence: 83%

Effect of N2 and Ar gas on DC arc plasma generation and film composition from Ti-Al compound cathodes

Zhirkov

Окс

Rosén

2015

Journal of Applied Physics

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Articles you may be interested inEffect of Ti-Al cathode composition on plasma generation and plasma transport in direct current vacuum arc J. Appl. Phys. 115, 123301 (2014); 10.1063/1.4869199Ion velocities in direct current arc plasma generated from compound cathodes J. Appl. Phys. 114, 213302 (2013) DC arc plasma from Ti, Al, and Ti 1Àx Al x (x ¼ 0.16, 0.25, 0.50, and 0.70) compound cathodes has been characterized with respect to plasma chemistry (charged particles) and charge-stateresolved ion energy for Ar and N 2 pressures in the range 10 À6 to 3 Â 10 À2 Torr. Scanning electron microscopy was used for exploring the correlation between the cathode and film composition, which in turn was correlated with the plasma properties. In an Ar atmosphere, the plasma ion composition showed a reduction of Al of approximately 5 at. % compared to the cathode composition, while deposited films were in accordance with the cathode stoichiometry. Introducing N 2 above $5 Â 10 À3 Torr, lead to a reduced Al content in the plasma as well as in the film, and hence a 1:1 correlation between the cathode and film composition cannot be expected in a reactive environment. This may be explained by an influence of the reactive gas on the arc mode and type of erosion of Ti and Al rich contaminations, as well as on the plasma transport. Throughout the investigated pressure range, a higher deposition rate was obtained from cathodes with higher Al content. The origin of generated gas ions was investigated through the velocity rule, stating that the most likely ion velocities of all cathode elements from a compound cathode are equal. The results suggest that the major part of the gas ions in Ar is generated from electron impact ionization, while gas ions in a N 2 atmosphere primarily originate from a nitrogen contaminated layer on the cathode surface. The presented results provide a contribution to the understanding processes of plasma generation from compound cathodes. It also allows for a more reasonable approach to the selection of composite cathode and experimental conditions for thin film depositions. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

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“…The reduction of the Cr charge states in vacuum conditions can only originate from processes in the cathode spot due to the absence of a gas background. Intermixing of Al and Cr in the composite cathodes should trigger the formation of intermetallic phases as reported in [38] and [39]. If these phases have different cohesive energies than pure Al and Cr, then they might alter the ICSDs according to the cohesive energy rule established for single-element cathodes [4], [6], [40].…”

Section: B Processes In Cathode Spotsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Ion Charge State Distributions of Al and Cr in Cathodic Arc Plasmas From Composite Cathodes in Vacuum, Argon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen

Franz

Polcik

Anders

2013

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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Multielement cathodes are increasingly used for advanced coatings, yet most cathodic arc plasma measurements have been reported for pure element cathodes. In this contribution, we measure the charge state distributions of aluminum and chromium ions from Al-Cr composite cathodes of different Al to Cr ratios. The arc discharges are pulsed, with pulse duration of around 300 µs and currents of 175 A, operated at high vacuum and in gases with a pressure of up to 1.3 Pa of Ar, N 2 , and O 2 . For comparison with literature data, the measurements also included the plasma compositions of discharges using pure Al and Cr cathodes. As expected, the charge distributions are found to be affected by the cathode conditions, the type of gas, and the pressure of the gas into which the arc spot plasma is expanding. Generally, large effects of gas are observed when the pressure exceeded 0.1 Pa, which can be mainly associated with the ions' mean-free path with respect to charge exchange collisions. Differences between ions can be attributed to the energy-and species-dependent charge-exchange cross sections. Considering different cathode compositions, we found that Cr ions tend to have lower charge states from the composite cathodes compared with the pure element cathode, whereas Al ions are relatively unaffected by the cathode composition. Despite the wealth of detailed experimental results, it is difficult to discern trends and rules that could be generalized because measured data involve a convolution of cathode phenomena and gas collisional effects.

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Surface modification of Ti–Al targets during cathodic arc evaporation

Cited by 12 publications

References 43 publications

Erosion behavior of composite Al-Cr cathodes in cathodic arc plasmas in inert and reactive atmospheres

Erosion behavior of composite Al-Cr cathodes in cathodic arc plasmas in inert and reactive atmospheres

Effect of N2 and Ar gas on DC arc plasma generation and film composition from Ti-Al compound cathodes

Ion Charge State Distributions of Al and Cr in Cathodic Arc Plasmas From Composite Cathodes in Vacuum, Argon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen

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