Synthesis and Characterization of Ti-Si-C-N Nanocomposite Coatings Prepared by a Filtered Vacuum Arc with Organosilane Precursors

Abstract

Many deposition tools such as magnetron sputtering, plasma enhanced chemical vapor dep‐ osition (PECVD), arc ion plating (AIP), and filtered vacuum arc (FVA) have been introduced for synthesizing nanocomposite films. Table 1 summarizes previous works of nanocompo‐ site coatings. Nanocomposites based on TiN have been investigated dominantly with the in‐ corporation of silicon or carbon contents. The incorporation methods such as an alloy arc cathode, addition of reactive gas, and additional magnetron sputtering have been used to deposit ternary or quaternary composition nanocomposite films. The magnetron sputtering and PECVD have been firstly used to grow nanocomposite films due to the simplicity of controlling a composition ratio becuase precise control of additional components is impor‐ tant to make a nanocomposite structure. For example, Ti-Si-N nanocomposite films have showed the maximum hardness at Si content of 9±1 at.% [1]. After that, a vacuum arc dis‐ charge has been applied to the nanocomposite coatings becuase the vacuum arc process has many advantages against other CVD or PVD processes. A vacuum arc plasma exhibits high ionization ratio more than 90%. Also the ion energy in a vacuum arc is in the range of 10-100 eV. Hence, the effect of ion energy on the film structure appears significantly [2]. Neverthe‐ less, the vacuum arc method cannot avoid the problem of macro particles. Macro particles generated from arc spots are the main drawback of the vacuum arc process. The macro par‐ ticles form micro cracks or pin holes, resulting in a bad corrosion resistance when coatings are exposed in some corrosive environments.