By employing pulsed laser deposition, amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN x ) thin films, were prepared on unheated Si (100). Investigation of compositional and structural modifications induced by microwave nitrogen plasma afterglow on amorphous carbon nitride thin films, has been carried out in the range of nitrogen pressure 10-1000 Pa. The role of nitrogen plasma afterglow on the physicochemical and structural characteristics of a-CN x was explored using the diagnostic techniques: Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Upon analyzing the Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectra, it is concluded that employing nitrogen plasma afterglow during the films deposition favors, in general, the increase in nitrogen content and the formation of sp 2 bonding in the a-CN x films. The analysis of scanning electron and atomic force microscopy images demonstrated that the films had a granular structure formed from particles coalesced together into cauliflower-like clusters and the particles size increased by increasing nitrogen pressure. A 2D atomic force microscopy line profile measurements provide evidence to a decrease in size of clusters using nitrogen plasma afterglow which could be due to the annihilation of excess vacancies and/or the elimination of grain boundaries. These analyses were found to be quite reliable to help understand the effects of microwave nitrogen plasma afterglow on amorphous carbon nitride thin films.
In this work, TiAlV thin films have been prepared on two different types of substrates: silicon and stainless steel (SS304) by two deposition methods: Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and DC magnetron sputtering. Different techniques have been employed in order to characterize film properties such as: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), microhardness and corrosion test. EDX analysis showed that the deposited films are slightly different from that of the target material Ti6Al4V alloy. The measured microhardness values are about 11.7[Formula: see text]GPa and 4.7[Formula: see text]GPa for films prepared by PLD and DC magnetron sputtering, respectively. Corrosion test indicated that the corrosion resistance of the two TiAlV films deposited on SS304 substrates in (0.9% NaCl) physiological normal saline medium was significantly improved compared with the SS304 substrates. These attractive results could permit applications of our films in the medical implants fabrication.
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