Deposition and characterization of magnetic Ti–Fe–C nanocomposite thin films

Carbide and nanocomposite thin films in the Ti–Pt–C system

“…The relative amount of a-C phase increases with Pt-content. This observation is consistent with observations from the Ti-Al-C, Ti-Fe-C, and Ti-Ni-C systems, where the solid solution of a weak carbide former in TiC x was found to promote the formation of a-C phase during deposition [15][16][17]27]. The formed (Ti 1-x Pt x )C y is not a thermodynamically stable compound and is likely to decompose upon annealing considering the position of Pt in the periodic table and the lack of PtC x at normal conditions.…”

“…This observation is general for the case of solid solution carbides of strong and weak carbide formers [12,13,15,17]. [30,31].…”

“…These solid solution carbides are found to contain much more Me than thermodynamical equilibrium allows, and are hence supersaturated. The weak carbide former substitutes some of the Ti, forming (Ti 1-x Me x )C. This has, e.g., been shown for the Ti-Fe-C, Ti-Ni-C, and Ti-Cu-C systems [15][16][17]. It has also been shown that these metastable solid solutions can decompose by forming a separate metal phase of the weak carbide former [15][16][17][18].…”

“…The weak carbide former substitutes some of the Ti, forming (Ti 1-x Me x )C. This has, e.g., been shown for the Ti-Fe-C, Ti-Ni-C, and Ti-Cu-C systems [15][16][17]. It has also been shown that these metastable solid solutions can decompose by forming a separate metal phase of the weak carbide former [15][16][17][18]. It should hence be possible to produce the desired ncTiC x /a-C/nc-Pt structure, either during codeposition of the elements, or by codeposition followed by post-deposition annealing of metastable (Ti 1-x Pt x )C thin film.…”

“…Comparing with previous studies on the Ti-Fe-C and Ti-Ni-C systems [15][16][17][18], these temperatures should be sufficient for the metastable solid solution to decompose and crystallise the weak carbide forming metal.…”