The structure and hardness of rf-reactive sputtered Ti-Zr-N films

초록

Ternary Ti-Zr-N thin films were synthesized by rf-reactive sputtering in Ar-N2 plasma. Effects of the substrate temperature and the nitrogen flow rate in the sputtering process on the microstructures of Ti-Zr-N thin films were investigated using SEM, TEM, AFM, XRD and AES techiques. The hardness of the Ti-Zr-N film increases as the substrate temperature in reactive sputtering increases. The reactive sputtered Ti-Zr-N film is characterized as polycrystalline in nature with two dominating orientations of (111) and (200). A substrate temperature of 300℃ and an N2/Ar flow ratio of 40:30 are suggested for getting a densely oacjed film structure with clean and fairly smooth surface.