Journal
SURFACE & COATINGS TECHNOLOGY
Volume 205, Issue 15, Pages 3923-3930Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2011.02.007
Keywords
Cathodic arc; Hard coatings; Layer formation; Ternary cathodes; Resputtering
Funding
- VINN Excellence center on Functional Nanoscale Materials (FunMat)
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This paper presents the physical mechanism behind the phenomenon of self-layering in thin films made by industrial scale cathodic arc deposition systems using compound Ti-Si-C cathodes and rotating substrate fixture. For the as-deposited films, electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry reveals a trapezoid modulation in Si content in the substrate normal direction, with a period of 4 to 23 nm dependent on cathode configuration. This is caused by preferential resputtering of Si by the energetic deposition flux incident at high incidence angles, when the substrates are facing away from the cathodes. The Ti-rich sub-layers exhibit TiC grains with sizes up to 5 nm, while layers with high Si-content are less crystalline. The nanoindentation hardness of the films increases with decreasing layer thickness. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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