Room Temperature Deposition of Nanocrystalline SiC Thin Films by DCMS/HiPIMS Co-Sputtering Technique

Abstract

Due to an attractive combination of chemical and physical properties, silicon carbide (SiC) thin films are excellent candidates for coatings to be used in harsh environment applications or as protective coatings in heat exchanger applications. This work reports the deposition of near-stoichiometric and nanocrystalline SiC thin films, at room temperature, on silicon (100) substrates using a DCMS/HiPIMS co-sputtering technique (DCMS—direct current magnetron sputtering; HiPIMS—high-power impulse magnetron sputtering). Their structural and mechanical properties were analyzed as a function of the process gas pressure. The correlation between the films’ microstructure and their mechanical properties was thoroughly investigated. The microstructure and morphology of these films were examined by appropriate microscopic and spectroscopic methods: atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy, while their mechanical and tribological properties were evaluated by instrumented indentation and micro-scratch techniques. The lowest value of the working gas pressure resulted in SiC films of high crystallinity, as well as in an improvement in their mechanical performances. Both hardness (H) and Young’s modulus (E) values were observed to be significantly influenced by the sputtering gas pressure. Decreasing the gas pressure from 2.0 to 0.5 Pa led to an increase in H and E values from 8.2 to 20.7 GPa and from 106.3 to 240.0 GPa, respectively. Both the H/E ratio and critical adhesion load values follow the same trend and increase from 0.077 to 0.086 and from 1.55 to 3.85 N, respectively.

Influence of HiPIMS Pulse Widths on the Structure and Properties of Copper Films

“…High-ionizationrate plasma bombards the substrate under substrate bias, resulting in a thin film with good density and high adhesion between the film and substrate [5,12,13]. At the same time, HiPIMS has the characteristics of high peak power, low pulse frequency, and low duty cycle, which reduces the average power and avoids the phenomenon of target material melting due to high power and insufficient water cooling ability [14,15]. The characteristics of HiPIMS high-density plasma have aroused great interest in related industries.…”

Computer simulation of obtaining thin films of silicon carbide

“…16 The method of combined use of DC magnetron sputtering and high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering makes it possible to deposit almost stoichiometric and nanocrystalline SiC thin films at a Institute of High-Temperature Electrochemistry, Ural Branch of Russian Academy room temperature on silicon (100) substrates. 17 The hardness of the resulting coating and its Young's modulus significantly depend on the pressure of the atomizing gas. Thin crystalline SiC films of good quality can be produced by fast thermal chemical vapor deposition.…”