Study Of High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering Implantation& Deposition And Preparation Of CrN Films

Plasma immersion ion implantation and deoosition(PIII&D) technology is widely used in the field of film deposition on metals and compounds. With the advantage of injection and deposition at the same time, high energy particle bombardment and non line of sight, PIII&D has been utilized to treat the components with complex shape. However, the application of PIII&D combined with cathodic arc has been limited due to large particle, equipment complexity and low efficiency.To overcome the shortcoming of conventional PIII &D, a new plasma ion implantation and deposition method with hybrid high-power pulse magnetron sputtering(HPPMS) source as a metal source is developed in our laboratory. This is named as high-power pulse magnetron sputtering implantation and deposition(HPMSID). In this paper the characteristics of glow discharge under high-power pulse magnetron sputtering implantation and deposition was investigated. The uniformity in films thickness has been tested. CrN films were deposited on stainless steels and Ti6Al4V alloys substrate. The surface properties of thin films with different Ar/N₂ ratio, gas pressure, high voltage, target spacing have also been studied. The surface morphology, phase structures, wear resistance, micro-hardness, scratch load and corrosion resistance of deposited films have been systematically investigated by scanning electronic microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ball-on-disk tribometer, Vickers indenter, scratch tester and electrochemistry tester respectively.The results related to the plasma discharge characteristics show that the pulse current flowing through magnetron sputtering target increases with average target current, pulse width on magnetron sputtering target, high-voltage(HV) amplitude and pulse width of high voltage, however, decreases with frequency. The current flowing through the substrate increases with average current flowing through the magnetron sputtering target and high voltage amplitude, but decreased with target pulse width and frequency applied to magnetron sputtering target. The target voltage increases with target average current, but decreases with pulse width and frequency applied to magnetron sputtering target, high voltage amplitude, high voltage width and gas pressure. The current flowing through the substrate increases with target average current, frequency, high voltage amplitude and high voltage width, and decreases at first, then increases with the target current of DC magnetron sputtering.Compared with DC magnetron sputtering, high power pulse magnetron sputtering implantation and deposition technique leads to better uniformity in film thickness and adhesion between the flim and substrate. SEM results show that the surface of CrN flims is mainly featured by island-like structure. With the Ar/N tatio increasing, the surface of CrN flims becomes more smooth, more compact and less defect, and CrN(200) diffraction peak intensity increases gradually. CrN thin films have high interfacial adhesion, the critical load near to 70N. Meanwhile, CrN thin films possess the high surface hardness and elastic modulus of the substrate, and the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the treated sample are also enhanced.