Preparation And Study Of ZrCu Amorphous Alloy Films

More and more researchers had paid attention to the preparation and application ofthe bulk metallic glass （BMG） since BMG was successfully prepared, although theearliest metal amorphous material was prepared by films preparation. In fact, the filmstended to be amorphous material more easily by changing the element ratio and thetechnological parameters than the BMG. The research of the metal amorphous materialfilms, especially the simple element system, may have a good supplement to the BMGpreparation, and help researchers to understand the structure of amorphous material andthe nature and law of its crystallization more conveniently and perfectly.In this paper, Zr_xCu_1-x（0.25≤x≤0.75） binary amorphous alloy thin films wereprepared on Si （100） substrates by magnetron sputtering technique. Surface profiler wasemployed to study the deposition rate of the films with the sputtering parameters, such astarget-substrate distance, sputtering pressure, sputtering time and sputtering power.Energy diffraction spectrum （EDS） was used to measure the compositions of the films.Scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and Atomic force microscopy （AFM） were used tostudy the effects of various parameters on the surface morphology of films. X-raydiffraction （XRD） was used to study the structure of the alloy films with sputteringparameters. Nano-indentation and Nano-scratch were used to measure the mechanicalproperties of films.Results indicate that, the deposition rate of the films decreased with the distance ofthe target-substrate increased. AFM results showed that the uniformity of the film in thetarget-substrate distance of7cm was better, and the deposition rate of the films wasappropriate. With sputtering pressure increasing, the deposition rate of the films firstincreased and then decreased. With sputtering time prolonged, the deposition rate of thefilms did not change significantly. The compositions of the films and targets are basicallyconsistent. The element and the sputtering pressure had effects on the structure of the film.The film tended to be crystal with the pressure increased. SEM results showed the atomcluster size larger with the Zr ratio and the sputtering time increased. The nano-hardnessand elastic modulus decreased with the trend of crystallization increased. The adhesiveforce between the film and the substrate was lower with the pressure increased. Furthermore, the force was higher when the power and the temperature of the substratewas higher.