Effects of Vanadium Content on Structure and Chemical State of TiVN Films Prepared by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Abstract

<p align="justify"> <span style="font-family:Verdana;">TiVN films were deposited on Si(100) wafers </span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">without external heating and biasing </span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">by reactive dc magnetron co-sputtering. Titanium and vanadium metals were used as sputtering targets. Ar and N</span>_{<span style="font-family:Verdana;">2</span>}<span style="font-family:Verdana;"> gases were used as sputtering gas and reactive gas, respectively. The flow rates of Ar and N</span>_{<span style="font-family:Verdana;">2</span>}<span style="font-family:Verdana;"> were 8 and 4 sccm, respectively. The Ti sputtering cur</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">rent (I</span>_{<span style="font-family:Verdana;">Ti</span>}<span style="font-family:Verdana;">) was kept constant at 0.6 Aand V sputtering current (I</span>_{<span style="font-family:Verdana;">V</span>}<span style="font-family:Verdana;">) was varied from 0.4 to1.0 A. The deposition time for all the deposited films was 30 min. The effects of V sputtering current on the structure, surface and cross-sectional morphologies, and chemical composition and chemical state of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and </span></span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">field emission scanning electron microscopy</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> (FE-SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. It was found that all the prepared film formed (Ti,V)N solid solution. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">The lattice pa</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">rameter was found to decrease while crystallite size, RMS roughness and film thickness increased with increasing V sputtering current. High resolution XPS spectra of the Ti 2p, V 2p and N 1s revealed that the fraction of Ti-N and V-N bonds increased as the V sputtering current increased. However, the V-N bond was observed only at a high V sputtering current.</span><span></span> </p> <p> <span></span> </p

Effect of codeposition parameters on the hardness and adhesion of TiVN coatings

“…For instance, for coatings with V contentr17 at% (e.g., I5 and I9), higher N fractions of Y=1.20 and 1.40 are shown, respectively, than for those with V content near 25% (e.g., I3 and I4 with Yr0.99). These results are consistent with those reported in the literature [10]. In reference to the Ti coating content, the lowest Ti content (21.65 at%) was exhibited by I7 and the highest (35.93 at%) by I9 coating.…”

“…However, the a values of the I1, I2 and I4 coatings (4.20-4.24 Å) are near that of TiN, while those of the I3 and I8 coatings (4.11-4.13 Å) are near that of VN. For the I5-I7 and I9 coatings, the a values (4.15-4.16 Å) are in the range of those proposed for a TiVN solid solution (4.15-4.18 Å) by other authors [10].…”

“…For instance, Knotek et al [6] modified the coating composition of the TiVN magnetron-sputtered thin films, by altering the TiV target composition (Ti 87 V 13 , Ti 71 V 29 , Ti 48 V 52 ), and the partial nitrogen pressure P N2 /P Ar (1.5-9%), while the bias voltage was kept fixed at À 60 V. The results showed the highest hardness (3100 HV) for the coatings at 52 at% V and P N2 /P Ar $ 3%, and the best adhesive strength, 100 N at 29 at% V and P N2 /P Ar $ 5%. Deeleard et al [10] tailored the coating composition of the TiVN magnetron cosputtered thin films altering the V sputtering current I V : 0.4,0.6,0.8 and 1.0 A, keeping the Ti sputtering current (I Ti ) constant at 0.6 A without biasing. The results showed that the lattice parameter decreased, while the crystallite size and RMS roughness increased by increasing the V sputtering current.…”

Effects of Titanium Sputtering Current on Structure and Morphology of TiZrN Films Prepared by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

“…Recently, ternary transition metal nitrides have gained much attention as substitutes for binary nitrides because of their high hardness and their goodness, were resistance and excellent corrosion protection [3][4][5]. Ti-based ternary nitrides such as (Ti,Al)N [2,6,7], (Ti,Zr)N [6,8], and (Ti,V)N [6,9,10] have been extensively studied. In recent years, however, a few studies on (Ti,Zr)N have been reported in the literature [11][12][13].…”

Influence of V content on properties of Ti–W–V–N films

“…According to Ref. [19,20], the binding energies of Ti 2p 3/2 and V 2p 3/2 in Ti–N and V–N bonds are about 455 and 513 eV, respectively. Therefore, TiN is easier to form than VN and V existed in the form of substitutional solid solution of TiN lattices.…”