Adisorn Buranawong

Characterization of Aluminium Titanium Nitride Thin Films Deposited by Reactive Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Nanocrystalline aluminium titanium nitride (AlTi3N) thin films were deposited on Si (100) wafers and grids by reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique using titanium and aluminium targets. The films were sputtered in Ar and N2 mixture at a constant flow rate under different conditions of deposition time ranging from 15 to 60 minutes. The crystal structure was characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and microstructure was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that the formation of polycrystalline AlTi3N with the orthorhombic structure and the development of crystal structure was observed by varied the deposition time. The microstructure of films was good according to the XRD results. On the other hand, after annealed the films at 500OC in the air for 1 hour, the crystal structure did not change that exposed the stable structure of AlTi3N films.

The Influence of Total and Oxygen Partial Pressures on Structure and Hydrophilic Property of TiO2 Thin Films Deposited by Reactive DC Magnetron Sputtering

TiO2 thin films have been deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique to study the effect of total pressure and oxygen partial pressure on structure and hydrophilic properties. The crystal structure and hydrophilic property was measured by XRD and contact angle meter, respectively. The results showed that the films were composed of pure rutile and mixed of anatase/rutile structure dependent on the total pressure and oxygen partial pressure. It was found that all films can perform hydrophilic property. In case of high total pressure, the films showed superhydrophilic property, whereas the films deposited under various oxygen partial pressures with fixed total pressure were all films exhibit superhydrophilic property.

Structural Characterization of Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtered Nanocrystalline CrAlN Thin Film

Nanocrystalline CrAlN thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by reactive DC magnetron co-sputtering technique. The effect of deposition time on crystal structure, chemical composition, thickness, microstructure and hardness of the thin films were characterized by XRD, EDS, AFM and FE-SEM and Nanoindentation, respectively. The as-deposited films were formed as a (Cr,Al)N solid solution with (111), (200) and (220) plane. The lattice constants were in range of 3.9916 - 4.0455 Å. The as-deposited films exhibited a nanostructure with a crystallite size in range of 15-35 nm. The thickness and roughness increased from 197 nm to 998 nm and 1.6 nm to 8.1 nm, respectively, with increasing the deposition time. The chemical composition of the films varied with the deposition time. The cross section analysis by FE-SEM showed columnar structure and dense morphology. The film hardness decreased from 39 GPa to 25 GPa with increasing the deposition time and crystallite size.

Effect of Deposition Time on Structure of TiAlN Thin Films Deposited by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN) thin films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron co-sputtering technique on Si substrate. The effect of deposition time on the structure of the TiAlN films was investigated. The crystal structure, surface morphology, thickness and elemental composition were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) technique, respectively. The results showed that, all the as-deposited films were formed as a (Ti,Al)N solid solution. The as-deposited thin films exhibited a nanostructure with a crystallite size of less than 30 nm. The film thickness increase from 115 nm to 329 nm, while the lattice parameter decrease from 4.206 Å to 4.196 Å, with increasing of the deposition time. Cross section analysis by FE-SEM showed compact columnar and dense morphology as a result of increasing the deposition time. The elemental composition of the as-deposited films varied with the deposition time.

The Effect of Base Pressure on Crystal Structure and Microstructure of CrN Thin Film Deposited by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

The CrN thin films were deposited using reactive magnetron sputtering by varying base pressure to investigate the crystal structure, microstructure and composition of thin film. In this work, the films properties were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and EDX techniques. The crystal structures were obtained the cubic of CrN with the crystal size between 23.23 – 28.25 nm and lattice parameters a = b = c = 4.142 - 4.160 Å. The XRD results indicated that the growth of preferred orientation was changed from (200) to (111) plane with increased the base pressure. The surface morphology of CrN thin films did not affected from base pressure. The thickness of CrN thin films which obtained from cross section analysis was decreased from 1788 to 1745 nm by varying the base pressure. The columnar pattern acccompany with the dense structure were investigated from the cross-section analysis. The Cr composition was substantly decreased whereas theN2 composition were increased which observed from EDX technique.

Effect of Al Sputtering Current on Structure of CrAlN Thin Films Prepared by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Chromium aluminium nitride (CrAlN) thin films were deposited on Si by reactive DC magnetron co-sputtering technique. The effect of Al sputtering current (IAl) on the crystal structure, elemental composition, thickness, microstructure and hardness were determined by XRD, EDS, AFM and FE-SEM and Nanoindentation, respectively. The results showed that, the as-deposited films were formed as a (Cr,Al)N solid solution with low Al sputtering current, whereas the amorphous structure can be found at high Al sputtering current. The film thickness and roughness was in range of 347 - 1047 nm and 1.45 - 3.37 nm, respectively. The elemental composition of the films varied with the Al sputtering current. The FE-SEM results indicated that the simultaneous evolution in grain refinement with cross-section microstructure through the Al sputtering current. The film hardness increased from 36 GPa to 46 GPa with increasing of Al contents.

Nanostructure and Microstructure Evolution of D.C. Reactive Magnetron Sputtered CrN Thin Films

The CrN thin films were deposited on silicon (100) substrate using reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The films were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, EDS and nanoindentation techniques to examine the effect of deposition time on crystal structure, compositions, microstructure and hardness. The crystal structure, microstructure, element composition and hardness. The higher crystallinity through longer deposition time were investigated. The grain aggregration with columnar structure were obtained from FE-SEM. The Cr and N contents were not direct relationship with deposition time. The CrN coated sample performed hardness varied between 9 - 16 GPa.

Growth and characterization of CrAlN thin film deposited by DC reactive co-sputtering

Chromium aluminium nitride (CrAlN) thin films were grown on Si wafers by DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique without external heating and biasing to the substrates. The effect of N2 gas flow rate on the structure of the as-deposited films was invested. Cr and Al metals were used as sputtering targets. The Cr and Al sputtering current were fixed at 300 mA. The sputtering gas (Ar) flow rate was fixed at 10 sccm and the reactive gas (N2) flow rate was varied from 2 sccm to 10 sccm. The crystal structure, thickness, roughness, microstructure, surface morphology, elemental composition and hardness were characterized by glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and nanoindentation technique, respectively. The results showed that, all the as-deposited films were formed as a (Cr, Al)N solid solution. The as-deposited films exhibited a nanostructure with a crystallite size of less than 40 nm. The crystal size and lattice constant was in range of 17-33 nm and 3.998-4.165 Å, respectively. The film thickness and roughness decreased from 400 nm to 244 nm and 2.8 nm to 1.4 nm, respectively, with increasing the N2 gas flow rate. The elemental composition of the as-deposited films varied with the N2 gas flow rate. Cross section analysis by FE-SEM showed compact columnar and dense morphology as increasing the N2 gas flow rate. The film hardness was in range of 14.1-60.3 GPa.

Structure and Microstructure of Binary Nitride TiN Thin Films Deposited by DC Reactive Sputtering

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films were deposited on to unheated silicon (100) and stainless steel substrates by home-made direct current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering method at a deposition of 60 min in an Ar-N2 gas mixture. The effects of sputtering power on structure and microstructure of these films have been studied. The films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM). The films colors were influenced by sputtering parameter which altered from green purple to light gold and dark gold, respectively. By XRD, the polycrystalline structure of the as-deposited films was face center cubic (fcc) of TiN structure with (111), (200), (220), and (311), planes. The increasing of sputtering power transformed film from amorphous phase to crystal phase with crystal size were enhanced from 21.9 nm to 39.8 nm. The AFM scans revealed that sputtering power significantly affected surface morphologies and thicknesses of the TiN films. With increase in sputtering power, the roughness and films thickness were increased from 0.5 nm to 25.1 nm and 331 nm to 1113 μm, respectively. The microstructure combined with cross-section analysis FE-SEM revealed that the grain refinement with columnar structure were obtained for the film deposited at sputtering power of 270 W.

Preparation and Characterization of Nanostructured TiN Thin Films Deposited by DC Reactive MagnetronSputtering

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films of different crystal structure and morphologies were deposited by direct current (dc) reactive magnetron sputtering method under conditions of various deposition times (3090 min). The crystal structure, crystal size, thickness and surface morphology properties of the films were studied and the results were discussed with respect to deposition time. The films were deposited on Si (100) and stainless steel substrates with constant Ar to N2 ratio of 15:2 sccm and sputtering power of 280 W. The crystal structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction. The Scherrers formula was used to calculated crystal size. The surface morphology and thickness were evaluated by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The golden coloured with uniformnity of TiN films were obtained at deposition time for 30 min. The as-deposited films color was varied with the deposition times from gold, brown and dark brown. The polycrystalline films showed reflections corresponding to the (111), (200), (220) and (311) orientations of the face center cubic TiN structure. The crystallinity of the films was increased with increased the deposition times. The AFM results indicate that the grain size of surface morphologies changed through the deposition times. With increase in deposition time, the roughness and films thickness were increased from 5.0 nm to 21.0 nm and 551.0 nm to 1.4 μm, respectively.