Growth and photoemission studies of titanium carbide coating by laser carburizing

Abstract

Carburizing of metals is well known technique to modify the tribological properties like hardness and corrosion resistance of metal surfaces. Besides this the electronic structures of nitrides and carbides of titanium metal have great importance from both fundamental and technological point of view. Resonance photoemission electron spectroscopy is a well-known technique to reveal the electronic structure of these alloys. In the present work titanium carbide (TiC) coating has been synthesized by laser carburizing on commercial available pure titanium sheet in a controlled methane atmosphere. X-ray diffraction studies reveal the formation of TiC phase after laser treatment. The hardness of TiC was performed by nano-indentation and its electronic structure has been characterized by x-ray and valence band photoelectron spectroscopy. The measured hardness is six times higher than the pure Ti substrate. Resonance photoemission spectrum of TiC gives maxima at 46 eV, which is a characteristic feature of Ti 3d states in the valence band of TiC coating.