Thickness determination of TiN and TiAl coatings on steel substrates using X‐ray diffraction method and their composition measurements by GD‐OES

Abstract

This paper presents a nondestructive X‐ray diffraction method for the accurate determination of thicknesses of polycrystalline TiN and amorphous‐like TiAl coatings deposited by DC magnetron sputtering onto thick polycrystalline stainless steel and carbon steel substrates. This method relies on the measurement of intensity loss of a substrate reflection caused by the deposition of the coating. The uncertainty of the thickness measurements by the X‐ray diffraction depends on the mass absorption coefficient of the coating material and the quality of the collected diffraction patterns. For the coatings considered, thicknesses determined by the X‐ray diffraction method show very good agreement with the thickness values measured by scanning electron microscopy and ball crater techniques.