Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T00:06:30.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Grain growth in nanocomposite Ti–B–N films during deposition: The effect of amorphous phase precipitation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2006

Z-J. Liu ,
Y.H. Lu  and
Y.G. Shen
Z-J. Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Y.H. Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Y.G. Shen*
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Experimental investigations by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction show that during sputter-deposition of Ti–B–N films amorphous materials, e.g., TiB2 and BN, are found to precipitate at the grain boundaries, resulting in a decrease in grain size when the boron concentration or the amount of amorphous phase increases. To understand these experimental observations, we have used Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effect of the amorphous phase precipitation on grain growth during film deposition. Our simulations demonstrate that the precipitation of amorphous phase at the grain boundaries can lower the grain growth exponent and thus leads to a low grain growth rate, particularly in the case of large amounts of amorphous phase. As a result, an exponential decay in grain size with the amount of amorphous phase can be observed in our simulations, which is in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords

Grain sizeSputteringThin film
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 82 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Losbichler, P., Mitterer, C., Gibson, P.N., Gissler, W., Hofer, F. and Warbichler, P.: Co-sputtered films within the quasi-binary system TiN–TiB2. Surf. Coat. Technol. 94–95, 297 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Heau, C. and Terrat, J.P.: Ultrahard Ti–B–N coatings obtained by reactive magnetron sputtering of a Ti–B target. Surf. Coat. Technol. 108–109, 332 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Mitterer, C., Losbichler, P., Hofer, F., Warbichler, P., Gibson, P.N. and Gissler, W.: Nanocrystalline hard coatings within the quasi-binary system TiN–TiB2. Vacuum 50, 313 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Mitterer, C., Mayrhofer, P.H., Beschliesser, M., Losbichler, P., Warbichler, P., Hofer, F., Gibson, P.N., Gissler, W., Hruby, H., Musil, J. and Vlcek, J.: Microstructure and properties of nanocomposite Ti–B–N and Ti–B–C coatings. Surf. Coat. Technol. 120–121, 405 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Heau, C., Fillit, R.Y., Vaux, F. and Pascaretti, F.: Study of thermal stability of some hard nitride coatings deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering. Surf. Coat. Technol. 120–121, 200 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Karvankova, P., Veprek-Heijman, M.G.J., Zindulka, O., Bergmaier, A. and Veprek, S.: Superhard nc-TiN/a-BN and nc-TiN/a-TiBx/a-BN coatings prepared by plasma CVD and PVD: A comparative study of their properties. Surf. Coat. Technol. 163–164, 149 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Jung, D.H., Kim, H., Lee, G.R., Park, B., Lee, J.J. and Joo, J.H.: Deposition of Ti–B–N films by ICP assisted sputtering. Surf. Coat. Technol. 174–175, 638 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Zhang, S., Sun, D., Fu, Y.Q. and Du, H.: Recent advances of superhard nanocomposite coatings: A review. Surf. Coat. Technol. 167, 113 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Lu, Y.H., Zhou, Z.F., Sit, P., Shen, Y.G., Li, K.Y. and Chen, H.: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization of reactively sputtered Ti–B–N thin films. Surf. Coat. Technol. 187, 98 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Klug, H.P. and Alexander, L.E.: X-ray Diffraction Procedures for Polycrystalline and Amorphous Materials (Wiley, New York, 1974).Google Scholar
11.Liu, Z.J., Zhang, C.H., Shen, Y.G. and Mai, Y.M.: Monte Carlo simulation of nanocrystalline TiN/amorphous SiNx composite films. J. Appl. Phys. 95, 758 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Shen, Y.G., Liu, Z.J., Jiang, N., Zhang, H.S., Chan, K.H. and Xu, Z.K.: Effect of silicon addition on surface morphology and structural properties of titanium nitride films grown by reactive unbalanced direct current magnetron sputtering. J. Mater. Res. 19, 523 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Thompson, C.V.: Structure evolution during processing of polycrystalline films. Ann. Rev. Mater. Sci. 30, 159 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Lita, A.E., Sanchez, J.E. and Jr.: Characterization of surface structure in sputtered Al films: Correlation to microstructure evolution. J. Appl. Phys. 85, 876 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Lita, A.E., Sanchez, J.E. and Jr.: Effects of grain growth on dynamic surface scaling during the deposition of Al polycrystalline thin films. Phys. Rev. B 61, 7692 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Dammers, A.J. and Radelaar, S.: A grain growth model for evolution of polycrystalline surfaces. Mater. Sci. Forum. 94–96, 345 (1991).Google Scholar
17.Srolovitz, D.J.: Grain growth in thin films: A Monte-Carlo approach. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 4, 2925 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Mazor, A., Srolovitz, D.J., Hagan, P.S. and Bukiet, B.G.: Columnar growth in thin films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 424 (1988).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Srolovitz, D.J., Mazor, A. and Bukiet, B.G.: Analytical and numerical modeling of columnar evolution in thin films. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 6, 2371 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Paritosh, C., Srolovitz, D.J., Battaile, C.C., Li, X. and Butler, J.E.: Simulation of faceted film growth in two-dimensions: Microstructure, morphology and texture. Acta Mater. 47, 2269 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Kurtz, S.K. and Carpay, F.M.A.: Microstructure and normal grain growth in metals and ceramics. 1: Theory. J. Appl. Phys. 51, 5725 (1980).Google Scholar
22.Mullins, W.W. and Vinals, J.: Self-similarity and growth-kinetics driven by surface free energy reduction. Acta Metall. 37, 991 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Song, X.Y., Liu, G.Q. and He, Y.Z.: Modified Monte Carlo method for grain growth simulation. Prog. Nat. Sci. 8, 92 (1998).Google Scholar
24.Radhakrishnan, B. and Zacharia, T.: Simulation of curvature-driven grain growth by using a modified Monte Carlo algorithm. Metall. Mater. Trans. A 26, 167 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Anderson, M.P., Grest, G.S. and Srolovitz, D.J.: Computer-simulation of normal grain-growth in 3 dimensions. Philos. Mag. B 59, 293 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.Grest, G.S., Anderson, M.P. and Srolovitz, D.J.: Domain-growth kinetics for the Q-state Potts-model in 2-dimension and 3-dimension. Phys. Rev. B 38, 4752 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Kumar, S., Gunton, J.D. and Kaski, K.: Dynamic scaling in the Q-state Potts model. Phys. Rev. B 35, 8517 (1987).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28.Beenakker, C.W.J.: Numerical simulation of a coarsening two-dimensional network. Phys. Rev. A 37, 1697 (1988).Google ScholarPubMed