Structure of the local environment of titanium atoms in multicomponent nitride coatings produced by plasma-ion techniques

Abstract

An experiment was performed to examine the X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES) and the Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) near the K-edge of titanium in nanocrystalline titanium nitride coatings containing additives of copper, silicon, and aluminum. Using the observation data, the structure parameters of the local environment of titanium atoms have been estimated for the coatings. According to crystallographic data, the Ti-N distance in the bulk phase of titanium nitride is 2.12 Å and the Ti-Ti distance is 3.0 Å. Nearly these values have been obtained for the respective parameters of the coatings. The presence of copper as an additive in a TiN coating increases the Ti-N distance inappreciably compared to that estimated for titanium nitride, whereas addition of silicon decreases the bond distance. It has been revealed that the copper and silicon atoms in Ti-Cu-N and Ti-Si-N coatings do not enter into the crystallographic phase of titanium nitride and do not form bonds with titanium and nitrogen, whereas the aluminum atoms in Ti-Al-N coatings form intermetallic phases with titanium and nitride phases.