Crystal Orientation and Hardness of Au/NiCr/Ta Films on Si-(111) Substrate Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Au/NiCr/Ta soft multi-layered metal films were deposited on hard Si-(111) substrate by magnetron sputtering. The crystal orientation, Hardness (H) and Elastic modulus (E) were investigated as a function of substrate temperature by XRD and nanoindentation techniques. The XRD revealed that all films on Si-(111) substrate are Au-(111) preferred orientation, indicating there are no alloying phases in the films, which is different from Au/NiCr/Ta films on Al2O3 substrate with a mixture of Au-(111) and Au-(200) orientation. Nanoindentation tests at shallow indentation depths (h≤t/4) where the hardness is reliable for metal films on hard substrate. Au film at substrate temperature 200°C has the highest hardness 4.2GPa. Meanwhile, the H/E value also indicated that the Au/NiCr/Ta films have preferable wear resistance at substrate temperature 200°C.