Abstract:
Chromium aluminum nitride (CrAlN) thin films were deposited on Si by reactive dc magnetron sputtering method from alloy target. As varied the nitrogen gas flow rates, in range of 2 -10 sccm and varied sputtering current, in range of 300 -700 mA. The as-deposited films were characterized by XRD, EDS, FE-SEM and Nanoindentation. The results showed that (1) in case of varied nitrogen flow rates, the as-deposited films were CrAlN with the solid solution structure of (Cr,Al)N with (111), (200) and (220) planes. The crystal size was in range of 14.60 -24.69 nm. The lattice constant was in range of 4.121 -4.145 Å. The as-deposited film composes of chromium, aluminum and nitrogen in different ratios. The CrAlN thin films deposited at low nitrogen gas flow rate showed the dense morphology and turned to be the columnar structure at higher nitrogen gas flow rate. The thickness of thin films decreased from 1610 to 652 nm. (2) in case of varied sputtering current, the as-deposited films were chromium aluminum nitride coating with the solid solution structure of (Cr,Al)N with (111), (200) and (220) planes. The crystal size was in range of 15.58 -26.24 nm. The lattice constant was in the range of 4.122 -4.149 Å. The as-deposited film composes of chromium, aluminum and nitrogen in different ratios. The films were the columnar structure. (3) The hardness of thin films were obtained from nanoindentation method, with increasing nitrogen flow rate, the hardness of thin films increased from 13.98 to 31.35 GPa. As increasing of sputtering current, the hardness of thin films decreased from 31.27 to 16.64 GPa.