Effects of Coffee-Bean-Like Morphology and Graded Interlayer on Texture Evolution of Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor-Deposited Ti-C-N Films

• Published in: Journal of the American Ceramic Society 2002-03, Vol.85 (3), p.636-640
• Main Authors: Shieh, Jiann, Wang, Hsiao Lei, Tsai, Ming Shyong, Hon, Min Hsiung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Structure and morphology; thickness; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology; titanium carbide; titanium carbonitride; titanium nitride
• ISSN: 0002-7820; 1551-2916
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1151-2916.2002.tb00143.x

Titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbide (TiC), and titanium carbonitride (TiCxN1−x) were prepared by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A graded interlayer was introduced to explore its effects on the texture of the TiC and TiN. The results showed that the topography of the TiCxN1−x, which resembled coffee beans, resulted from a twinning core structure that caused the dendritic grain shape and enhanced the 〈211〉 texture of TiC0.62·N0.38and TiC0.75·N0.25. As graded coating was used as a transition layer, the texture of TiC was changed from (220) to (200), and TiN was changed from (200) to (220) due to the pseudomorphic forces provided by the first layer plus graded layer. The residual stress contributions to this phenomenon are also discussed.