| The motivation for this work was to study environmentally friendly thin films that have a potential to act as a corrosion protection scheme for Aluminum alloys. To do this, a vacuum system capable of producing physical vapor deposition and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was designed, built and mated to an XPS system. Pure Aluminum was deposited onto a sample substrate of Aluminum 6061 alloy at a rate of one Angstrom per second in a base pressure of 5x10^-7 Torr. This was followed by deposition of anamorphous Silicon Carbide film through PECVD of Trimethylsilane. The sample was then transferred under vacuum into the XPS chamber for a depth profiled spectroscopic analysis. Data collected during multiple cycles of Argon ion sputtering show C-C, C-Si, Si-C, Si-Al, Al-O, Al-Al and Al-Si interactions. The interactions between Aluminum and Silicon give promise that a strong bond exists at the Aluminum interface.; This abstract of 149 words is approved as to form and content. |
