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Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction Investigation of the Microstructure of Nanoscale Multilayer TiAlN/VN Grown by Unbalanced Magnetron Deposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Q. Luo ,
D.B. Lewis ,
P.Eh. Hovsepian  and
W-D. Münz
Q. Luo*
Affiliation:
Materials Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom
D.B. Lewis
Affiliation:
Materials Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom
P.Eh. Hovsepian
Affiliation:
Materials Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom
W-D. Münz
Affiliation:
Materials Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: q.luo@shu.ac.uk
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Abstract

Cubic NaCl-B1 structured multilayer TiAlN/VN with a bi-layer thickness of approximately 3 nm and atomic ratios of (Ti+Al)/V = 0.98 to 1.15 and Ti/V = 0.55 to 0.61 were deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering at substrate bias voltages between -75 and -150 V. In this paper, detailed transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction revealed pronounced microstructure changes depending on the bias. At the bias -75 V, TiAlN/VN followed a layer growth model led by a strong (110) texture to form a T-type structure in the Thornton structure model of thin films, which resulted in a rough growth front, dense columnar structure with inter-column voids, and low compressive stress of -3.8 GPa. At higher biases, the coatings showed a typical Type-II structure following the strain energy growth model, characterized by the columnar structure, void-free column boundaries, smooth surface, a predominant (111) texture, and high residual stresses between -8 and -11.5 GPa.

Keywords

MicrostructureCoatingIon beam assisted deposition
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , April 2004 , pp. 1093 - 1104
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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