Microstructure and Interface Analyses of TiN Thin Films Deposited on M2 Speed Steel Substrate by Cathodic Arc Technique

Abstract

TiN films with different substrate temperatures have been produced on the surface of M2 speed steel with a titanium interlayer by a cathodic arc plasma deposition process. In this work, the influence of the substrate temperature on the microstructure and interface depth profile of deposited titanium nitride (TiN) films by using a titanium interlayer are presented and discussed. The TiN film-Ti interlayer-M2 substrate interface region were analyzed by energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and were observed by backscattered electron image (BEI). The structure and morphology of the TiN film were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). At lower temperature, the resultant TiN film exhibited strong (111) preferred orientation, whereas at higher temperature the dominant orientations of the film were ( 111) and ( 200). The result shows that the interface region of the TiN-Ti-M2 system was significantly improved at higher temperature.