CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF SPUTTERED CUBIC DELTA-VN(X) FILMS - INFLUENCE OF BASIC DEPOSITION PARAMETERS

Delta-VN(x) films were produced by high current triode magnetron sputtering in reactive mode. The influence of substrate bias voltage and growth rate on the composition including argon content, crystal structure and hardness of the deposits on a steel substrate were investigated using respectively electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Vickers microhardness measurements. This work confirmed that quartz film thickness measurement is a suitable technique to control the composition of reactively sputtered vanadium nitride films. The texture of the films changed from a strong [200] or [220] preferred orientation to a mixed [200], [111] and [220] one for a mean N-to-V ratio of 0.84 or 0.91 respectively as the substrate bias increased from -50 to -150 V. The crystal structure of these films was found to be rather independent of the growth rate. The microhardness of delta-VN(x) films varied with the deposition parameters from 1500 to 2600 HV0.1.