Growth stress in tungsten carbide-diamond-like carbon coatings

Journal article (2009)
Department
Materials Science and Engineering (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2009 The Author(s); American Institute of Physics
DOI: https://doi.org/doi:10.1063/1.3073890
Silicon Phase transformations Thin films Compressibility Crystal microstructure Sputtered coatings Coating techniques Diamond-like carbon Electron probe analysis Ion microprobe analysis Surface structure Tungsten alloys
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Published Date

02-02-2009

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Source:

Journal of Applied Physics, 105 (3), 2009

ISSN:

0021-8979

Source:

http://link.aip.org/link/JAPIAU/v105/i3/p033502/s1

Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Abstract

Growth stress in tungsten carbide-diamond-like carbon coatings, sputter deposited in a reactive argon/acetylene plasma, has been studied as a function of the acetylene partial pressure. Stress and microstructure have been investigated by wafer curvature and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) whereas composition and energy distribution functions of positive ions were obtained by electron probe microanalyzer, elastic recoil detection analysis, and mass-energy analyzer (MEA). It has been observed that the compressive stress decreases with increasing acetylene partial pressure, showing an abrupt change from ?5.0 to ?1.6 GPa at an acetylene partial pressure of 0.012 Pa. TEM micrographs show that by increasing the acetylene partial pressure in the plasma from 0 to 0.012 Pa, the microstructure of the coating changes from polycrystalline to amorphous. MEA results show that the most probable energy of positive ions bombarding the substrate during deposition in pure argon and argon/acetylene atmosphere is the same. Based on the results, it is concluded that the huge variation in the compressive stress at low acetylene partial pressures is due to a change in the microstructure of the coating from polycrystalline to amorphous and not to the energy of positive ions bombarding the film.

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