Abstract
In this research, nanostructured tantalum nitride (TaN) thin films were deposited on 316L stainless steel substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of nitrogen flow ratio (N2/(Ar + N2)) on the structural, mechanical and surface properties of deposited films was studied by means of XRD, SEM, Nano-indentation and AFM. The results revealed a strong correlation between the crystal structure and properties of TaN film, where the deposited film transforms from hexagonal γ-Ta2N to hexagonal ε-TaN and cubic TaN with increasing nitrogen flow ratio from 10% to 25%. In addition, it was found that increasing the nitrogen flow ratio will result in the target poisoning and lower the deposition rate, which causes the grains growth and roughening of the surface.
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