Probing the structure and the hardness of titanium/carbon nanocomposite coatings deposited by hybrid PVD/PECVD process

EL MEL, Abdelazziz, E. GAUTRON, F. CHRISTIEN, B. ANGLERAUD, A. GRANIER, Pavel SOUČEK, Petr VAŠINA, Vilma BURŠÍKOVÁ, M. TAKASHIMA, N. OHTAKE, H. AKASAKA, T. SUZUKI and Pierre-Yves TESSIER. Probing the structure and the hardness of titanium/carbon nanocomposite coatings deposited by hybrid PVD/PECVD process. In E-MRS 2012 Spring Meeting. 2012.

Basic information

• Original name: Probing the structure and the hardness of titanium/carbon nanocomposite coatings deposited by hybrid PVD/PECVD process
• Authors: EL MEL, Abdelazziz (250 France, guarantor), E. GAUTRON (250 France), F. CHRISTIEN (250 France), B. ANGLERAUD (250 France), A. GRANIER (250 France), Pavel SOUČEK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Petr VAŠINA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Vilma BURŠÍKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), M. TAKASHIMA (392 Japan), N. OHTAKE (392 Japan), H. AKASAKA (392 Japan), T. SUZUKI (392 Japan) and Pierre-Yves TESSIER (250 France).
• Edition: E-MRS 2012 Spring Meeting, 2012.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Conference abstract
• Field of Study: 10305 Fluids and plasma physics
• Country of publisher: France
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/12:00061366
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Keywords in English: titanium/carbon nanocomposite; structure; hardness

Abstract

Titanium/carbon nanocomposite hard coatings, which consist of TiC nanoparticles buried in an amorphous carbon matrix, have been prepared by a hybrid plasma process combining magnetron sputtering of a titanium target and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using methane as a source for amorphous carbon. The chemical composition of the bulk has been determined by Rutherford backscattered spectroscopy, and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The surface composition has been evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy before and after argon ion erosion. Bulk and surface analysis techniques did not provide the same results. The origin of these differences is discussed in details. Moreover, the structure of the coatings has been extensively probed by transmission electron microscopy, which has shown that when increasing the carbon content within the coating the size of the TiC nanoparticles shrinks. We further demonstrate that this structural evolution has a direct impact on the hardness of the coatings which gets reduced when the carbon content increases.