Deposition and Characterization of Aluminium Thin film Coatings using DC Magnetron Sputtering Process

Abstract

Aluminium (Al) thin film deposited using DC Magnetron sputtering combines many properties such as Optical, Mechanical properties on ceramic substrates .Properties of thin film coating depend on the deposition parameters employed. The aim of this work was to study the optical and mechanical properties of aluminium thinfilms. In order to study the above property deposition parameters varied with different deposition rate, power and argon flow rate in the DC magnetron sputtering process on substrates. The films were characterized by atomic force microscope, UV VIS NIR spectrophotometer, thickness profiler and nano mechanical testing system. The surface morphology of the film was examined by atomic force microscope shows the dense and uniform nanostructures with increased surface roughness from 4 to 21 nm with increasing argon flow. UV-VIS-NIR Spectrophotometer analysis indicates higher reflectance for all the films in the wavelength range of 250 nm to 2500 nm. Nano indentation study revealed that there was a considerable change in hardness values of the films prepared at different conditions.