Plasma Enhanced High-Rate Deposition of Advanced Film Materials by Metal Reactive Evaporation in Organosilicon Vapors

Dense homogeneous nanocomposite TiSiCN coatings with a thickness of up to 15 microns and a hardness of up to 42 GPa were obtained by the method of reactive titanium evaporation in a hollow cathode arc discharge in an Ar + C2H2 + N2-gas mixture with the addition of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). An analysis of the plasma composition showed that this method allowed for a wide range of changes in the activation degree of all components of the gas mixture, providing a high (up to 20 mA/cm2) ion current density. It is possible to widely change the chemical composition, microstructure, deposition rate, and properties of coatings obtained by this method, by changing the pressure, composition, and activation degree of the vapor–gas mixture. An increase in the fluxes of C2H2, N2, HMDS, and discharge current leads to an increase in the rate of coating formation. However, the optimal coatings from the point of view of microhardness were obtained at a low discharge current of 10 A and relatively low contents of C2H2 (1 sccm) and HMDS (0.3 g/h), exceeding which leads to a decrease in the hardness of the films and the deterioration of their quality, which can be explained by the excessive ionic exposure and the non-optimal chemical composition of the coatings. © 2023 by the authors.Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 20-79-10059This research was funded by the Russian Science Fund, grant number 20-79-10059

Obtaining of TiSiCN Coatings by Anodic Evaporation of Titanium and Decomposition of Hexamethyldisilazane in a Low-Pressure Arc Discharge

The method of TiSiCN-coatings deposition by anodic evaporation of Ti and decomposition of an organosilicon precursor (hexamethyldisilazane) in a low-pressure (∼1 mTorr) nitrogen-argon arc discharge with a self-heated hollow cathode is investigated. The plasma composition was analyzed by optical emission spectroscopy. TiSiCN coatings with a thickness of up to 10 microns and a hardness of up to 30 GPa were obtained in 1.5 hours at a temperature of 400 C. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 20-79-10059)

Synthesis of Nanocomposite TiSiCN Coatings by Titanium Evaporation and Organosilicon Compound Activation in Hollow Cathode Arc Discharge

TiSiCN coatings have been obtained by anode evaporation of titanium and the decomposi-tion of hexamethyldisilazane in an arc discharge, using a self-heated hollow cathode, at the pressure rate of 1 mTorr of the Ar+N2 gas mixture. The proposed method makes it possible to independently and widely change the amount of metal and precursor vapor flows, the pressure and composition of the vapor-gas mixture and the degree of ionic interaction on the surface of the growing coating within a single discharge system. The paper presents the method and the results of the effect of a current discharge (10–50 A), and the flux of precursor vapours (0–1 g/h), on deposition rates, compositions, and properties of TiSiCN coatings deposited by an advanced combined PVD+PECVD method. Dense homogeneous TiSiCN coatings up to 6 µm thick and up to 27.5 GPa in hardness were obtained at 7.5 µm/h. The composition of the obtained coatings has been studied by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and it has been shown that the presented methods can form nanocomposite coatings with nanocrystallites TiC, TiN, and TiCxN1−x 3–10 nm in the amorphous matrix based on SiCN. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 20-79-10059Funding: This research was funded by Russian Science Fund, grant number 20-79-10059