Abstract. Thin titanium nitride films (50-110nm) deposited via magnetron sputtering on A1 ÷ 3wt.% Mg substrates were irradiated with Ar, Kr, and Xe ion beams at room temperature and with energies between 0.1.0.9MeV. Sputtering yields and interface mixing rates were determined using Rutherford backscattering (RBS) as depth profiling method. The obtained TiN sputtering yields for Ar and Xe irradiation are found to be in good agreement with predictions of the Sigmund approach. A systematic study with Ar and Xe beams revealed a 79.20 Ion beam mixing (IBM) has attracted considerable interest in the last years due to its potential for technological applications. While IBM is already commonly used to passivate and harden steel surfaces [1], it has also been shown that ion beam induced interface mixing can greatly improve the adhesion of thin films [2]. Especially hard coatings like TiN which are deposited via "cold" PVD-methods onto a substrate are of technological interest. Here IBM has proved to be a suitable method to significantly improve the film adhesion, wear resistance and corrosion protection without exposing the substrate material to a harmful heat treatment [3].
PACS:However the understanding of the physical processes underlying IBM and the investigation of unwanted sideeffects such as surface sputtering and segregation of the implanted mixing gas are essential to optimize the ion beam parameters. While previous work [4,5] dealt with the performance of IBM on Ti and TiN coatings on steel substrates the present detailed study focuses on the ion induced modifications of TiN and Ti coatings on A1-3% Mg which is another technically relevant substrate material. In a systematic manner the modifications after irradiation with Ar, Kr, and Xe ions with energies ranging )' Present address: Max-Planck-Institut f'tir Festk/Srperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, W-7000 Stuttgart 80, Fed. Rep. Germany from 0.05-1.0 MeV were investigated by means of the RBS technique. This method proved to be particularly well suited for this system since the atomic masses of the film, the substrate and the ion beams are well separated.After giving details of the experimental procedure and data analysis in Sect. 1, the limiting effects of the IBM technique, surface sputtering and segregation of the implanted mixing gas, will be presented and discussed in Sect. 2. The major emphasis of this study lies on the interface mixing process itself; in Sect. 3, data and model calculations of the ion beam induced mass transport will be presented.