STUDY ON REACTIVELY SPUTTERED CrBN THIN FILMS AND THEIR PROPERTIES

摘要

In the last few years thin films consisting of transition metal boron nitrides have become of high interest due to their superior properties. CrBN thin films can be successfully used for applications were high hardness, good wear performance, lower roughness and good corrosion resistance is required. Reactively unbalanced magnetron sputtering was used to deposit CrBN thin films on Si (100) substrates with different deposition parameters. The properties of thin films were investigated using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry. The deposited coatings had an amorphous to nanocrystalline nature. It was observed that the surface roughness and grain size of the coatings are decreasing with the increasing of bias voltage during deposition and are independent of nitrogen concentration. Properties such as nanohardness and elastic modulus decrease with the increase of nitrogen content during deposition.