Development of dark Ti(C,O,N) coatings prepared by reactive sputtering

Direct current reactive magnetron sputtering was implemented to successfully deposit dark Ti(C,O,N) thin films on silicon substrates. A titanium target was sputtered while a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen was injected into the deposition chamber, independently from an acetylene source. The deposition parameters were chosen as a function of pre-existing knowledge about sputtered Ti-O-N and Ti-C-O films. Tuning the oxygen/(nitrogen + carbon) ratio allowed obtaining a large spectrum of properties. In particular, the colour of the films was characterized by spectral reflectance spectroscopy, and expressed in the CIE 1976 L*a*b* colour space. An accurate control of the reactive gas mixture flow rate allowed obtaining intrinsic, stable and attractive dark colour for decorative applications. Surprisingly, the coatings with the lowest content of carbon and the highest content of oxygen presented the darkest tones. Composition analysis by electron probe microanalysis was done to quantify the titanium and metalloid concentrations in the films. X-ray diffraction experiments revealed the evolution of the film structure from an fcc structure for the lowest (O-2 + N-2) flow rates to an amorphous one for the highest flow rates. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.