Structural effects of nanocomposite films of amorphous carbon and metal deposited by pulsed-DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Corbella, Carles; Bertrán, E.; Polo, M.C.; Pascual, E.; Andújar, J.L.

doi:10.1016/j.diamond.2007.07.012

Cited by 76 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…This is in agreement with the findings of Corbella et al [13,22], who observed an approximately linear relationship between the hardness and the tungsten content of their studied a-C:H:W coatings, which decreases with increasing ethine flow rate. The general trend in the relationship between hardness and ethine flow rate found here also agrees with these findings.…”

Section: Effect Of the Ethine Flow Ratesupporting

confidence: 82%

“…The same applies to the measured values of the indentation hardness in the range of H IT = 7.8 − 22.0 GPa. Hardness values documented in the literature are almost entirely covered (H IT = 8 − 17 GPa [13]; H IT = 8 − 18 GPa [5];H IT = 11 − 14 GPa [11]; H IT = 16 − 23 GPa [12]). As shown in Figure 7, there is a very strong correlation between E and H IT .…”

Section: Young's Modulus and Indentation Hardnessmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Empirical-Statistical Study on the Relationship between Deposition Parameters, Process Variables, Deposition Rate and Mechanical Properties of a-C:H:W Coatings

et al. 2014

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Tungsten-modified hydrogenated amorphous carbon coatings (a-C:H:W) were deposited on high speed steel by reactive magnetron sputtering of a tungsten carbide target in an argon-ethine atmosphere. The deposition parameters, sputtering power, bias voltage, argon and ethine flow rate, were varied according to a central composite design comprising 25 different parameter combinations. For comparison, a tungsten carbide coating was deposited, as well. During coating deposition, the process variables, total pressure, sputtering voltage and bias current, were measured as process characteristics. The thickness of the deposited coatings was determined using the crater grinding method, and the deposition rate was calculated. Young's modulus E and indentation hardness H IT were characterized by means of nanoindentation. With E = 80 − 253 GPa and H IT = 7.8 − 22.0 GPa, the mechanical properties were found to vary strongly in between different a-C:H:W variants. Using statistical methods, it is shown that these properties, as well as the deposition rate significantly depend on all four varied parameters. Despite a very similar influence of the parameters on modulus and hardness, as well as a very strong correlation of both properties, it is pointed out statistically that the H/E ratio, which is an indicator of the wear resistance, can be adapted in a targeted way and with some degree of independence.

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Section: Effect Of the Ethine Flow Ratesupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Young's Modulus and Indentation Hardnessmentioning

confidence: 95%

Empirical-Statistical Study on the Relationship between Deposition Parameters, Process Variables, Deposition Rate and Mechanical Properties of a-C:H:W Coatings

et al. 2014

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“…For instance, the performance of a-C can be tuned with the incorporation of transition metal in the material, such as Ag, Cu, or Ti nanoparticles: 11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] for metal-containing DLC, the carbon matrix provides high mechanical strength and the metallic inclusion enhances optical absorption. The structure and properties of the composite generally depend on the preparation technique and the deposition conditions, 6,8 which make the identification of universal structure-property relationships a challenging task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical and elastic properties of diamond-like carbon with metallic inclusions: A theoretical study

Tritsaris¹,

Mathioudakis²,

Kelires³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

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A tough material commonly used in coatings is diamond-like carbon (DLC), that is, amorphous carbon with content in four-fold coordinated C higher than $70%, and its composites with metal inclusions. This study aims to offer useful guidelines for the design and development of metalcontaining DLC coatings for solar collectors, where the efficiency of the collector depends critically on the performance of the absorber coating. We use first-principles calculations based on density functional theory to study the structural, electronic, optical, and elastic properties of DLC and its composites with Ag and Cu inclusions at 1.5% and 3.0% atomic concentration, to evaluate their suitability for solar thermal energy harvesting. We find that with increasing metal concentration optical absorption is significantly enhanced while at the same time, the composite retains good mechanical strength: DLC with 70-80% content in four-fold coordinated C and small metal concentrations (<3 at. %) will show high absorption in the visible (absorption coefficients higher than 10 5 cm À1) and good mechanical strength (bulk and Young's modulus higher than 300 and 500 GPa, respectively).

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“…[135,141] This leads to some peculiar properties, such as a plasma CVD-like process where amorphous carbon films can be deposited from a heavily poisoned metal target. [137,142] Similar behavior was observed in paper V for a Si target sputtered in Ar/N 2 /C 2 H 2 plasmas, where increasing C 2 H 2 flow rates resulted in increasing film carbon contents, replacing equally both silicon and nitrogen. Here, the Ar/N 2 flow rate was fixed to 0.28 to yield a pressure of 400 mPa and pressure was allowed to increase as C 2 H 2 was introduced.…”

Section: Acetylenesupporting

confidence: 62%

Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Hänninen¹

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Silicon nitride and silicon nitride-based ceramics have several favorable material properties, such as high hardness and good wear resistance, which makes them important materials for the coating industry. This thesis focuses the synthesis of silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, and silicon carbonitride thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering. The films were characterized based on their chemical composition, chemical bonding structure, and mechanical properties to link the growth conditions to the film properties. Silicon nitride films were synthesized by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) from a Si target in Ar/N 2 atmospheres, whereas silicon oxynitride films were grown by using nitrous oxide as the reactive gas. Silicon carbonitride was synthesized by two different methods. The first method was using acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) in addition to N 2 in a Si HiPIMS process and the other was co-sputtering of Si and C, using HiPIMS for Si and direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) for graphite targets in an Ar/N 2 atmosphere. Langmuir probe measurements were carried out for the silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride processes and positive ion mass spectrometry for the silicon nitride processes to gain further understanding on the plasma conditions during film growth. The target current and voltage waveforms of the reactive HiPIMS processes were evaluated.The main deposition parameter affecting the nitrogen concentration of silicon nitride films was found to be the nitrogen content in the plasma. Films with nitrogen contents of 50 at.% were deposited at N 2 /Ar flow ratios of 0.3 and above. These films showed Si−N as the dominating component in Si 2p X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) core level spectra and Si−Si bonds were absent. The substrate temperature and target power were found to affect the nitrogen content to a lower extent. The residual stress and hardness of the films were found to increase with the film nitrogen content. Another factors influencing the coating stress were the process pressure, negative substrate bias, substrate temperature, and HiPIMS pulse energy. Silicon nitride coatings with good adhesion and low levels of compressive residual stress were grown by using a pressure of 600 mPa, a substrate temperature iii iv below 200 ℃, pulse energies below 2.5 Ws, and negative bias voltages up to 100 V.The elemental composition of silicon oxynitride films was shown to depend on the target power settings as well as on the nitrous oxide flow rate. Silicon oxide-like films were synthesized under poisoned target surface conditions, whereas films deposited in the transition regime between poisoned and metallic conditions showed higher nitrogen concentrations. The nitrogen content of the films deposited in the transition region was controlled by the applied gas flow rate. The applied target power did not affect the nitrogen concentration in the transition regime, while the oxygen content increased at decreasing target powers. The chemical composition of the films was show...

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Structural effects of nanocomposite films of amorphous carbon and metal deposited by pulsed-DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Cited by 76 publications

References 13 publications

Empirical-Statistical Study on the Relationship between Deposition Parameters, Process Variables, Deposition Rate and Mechanical Properties of a-C:H:W Coatings

Empirical-Statistical Study on the Relationship between Deposition Parameters, Process Variables, Deposition Rate and Mechanical Properties of a-C:H:W Coatings

Optical and elastic properties of diamond-like carbon with metallic inclusions: A theoretical study

Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

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