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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

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, S1 1WB, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Q. Luo, D. B. Lewis, P. Eh. Hovsepian & W.-D. Münz

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  1. Q. Luo
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  2. D. B. Lewis
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  3. P. Eh. Hovsepian
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  4. W.-D. Münz
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Luo, Q., Lewis, D.B., Hovsepian, P.E. et al. Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction Investigation of the Microstructure of Nanoscale Multilayer TiAlN/VN Grown by Unbalanced Magnetron Deposition. Journal of Materials Research 19, 1093–1104 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2004.0143

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