Characterization of diamond films deposited on titanium and its alloys

• Published in: Thin solid films 1995-12, Vol.270 (1), p.177-183
• Main Authors: Rats, D., Vandenbulcke, L., Herbin, R., Benoit, R., Erre, R., Serin, V., Sevely, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alloys; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Deposition process; Diamond; Exact sciences and technology; Physics; Structure and morphology; thickness; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology; Titanium
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/0040-6090(95)06913-5

Titanium and its alloys have important applications for example in aerospace or as bioimplants. Some of these applications would be improved by diamond coatings. However the large thermal expansion mismatch between diamond and titanium or its alloys creates high residual stresses, up to about 7 GPa at 800 °C, which represent an important drawback. In this study, polycrystalline diamond films were deposited on pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V in a classical tubular microwave plasma reactor from C-H(-O)-containing gas mixtures, at a temperature in the range 600–900 °C. Raman spectroscopy provided information about the diamond grain stress, which is obviously related to the deposition temperature. X-ray diffraction indicates the presence of titanium carbide or oxycarbide. Some other characterizations by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) are reported. It is shown that XPS coupled to argon ionic etching allows us to study the first steps of the deposition process. The structure and the chemical composition at the interface of a thicker deposit are obtained by TEM and EELS.