Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-xh45t Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-05T13:00:44.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of substrate bias voltage on structure and properties of DC magnetron sputtered Ni–Zr alloy thin films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

Bibhu Prasad Sahu ,
Amlan Dutta  and
Rahul Mitra
Bibhu Prasad Sahu*
Affiliation:
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal721302, India
Amlan Dutta
Affiliation:
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal721302, India
Rahul Mitra
Affiliation:
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal721302, India
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: bibhu.igit@iitkgp.ac.in
Get access

Abstract

The role of negative substrate bias voltage in influencing the microstructural evolution, along with the mechanical and scratch behavior of magnetron sputtered Ni–Zr alloyed thin films, has been investigated. The films have been deposited on a Si(100) substrate by direct current (DC) magnetron co-sputtering of high-purity elemental Ni and Zr targets, using an optimized target power in an argon atmosphere at room temperature by altering the negative substrate bias voltage (0 to −80 V). The increase in negative substrate bias voltages leads to an increase in Zr content of the investigated films. The characterization techniques such as grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies confirm that an increase in the negative substrate bias voltage leads to an increase in the volume fractions of amorphous phase and Ni3Zr, but a decrease in the deposition rate, surface roughness, and average grain sizes. Hardness and Young's modulus obtained by nanoindentation, along with the coefficient of friction obtained from nano-scratch experiments, appear to be related to the relative volume fractions of both nanocrystalline and the amorphous phase. Furthermore, increase in Ni3Zr volume fraction with decrease in grain size within the crystalline part of the film, with increase in substrate bias used during deposition may have contributed to both increase in both hardness and scratch resistance.

Keywords

microstructurenanoindentationthin film

Information

Type
Novel Synthesis and Processing of Metals
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 35 , Issue 12 , 29 June 2020 , pp. 1543 - 1555
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Shu, X., Kong, D., Lu, Y., Long, H., Sun, S., Sha, X., Zhou, H., Chen, Y., Mao, S., and Liu, Y.: Size effect on the deformation mechanisms of nanocrystalline platinum thin films. Sci. Rep. 7, 13264 (2017).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, T., Lu, W., Li, J., Chen, S., Li, C., and Weng, G.J.: Tailoring tensile ductility of thin film by grain size graded substrates. Int. J. Solid Struct. 166, 124 (2019).10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2019.02.011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, Z., Zhang, P., Wu, K., Wang, Y., Liu, G., Zhang, G., and Sun, J.: Size dependent phase transformation and mechanical behaviors in nanocrystalline Ta thin films. Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater. 82, 7 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, Z., Xiong, C., Luo, Z., and Zhang, X.: Regulation of electrical and magnetic properties in amorphous CoFeTaBO films. Thin Solid Films 669, 114 (2019).Google Scholar
Wang, C., Wang, T., Cao, L., and Zhang, G.: The effect of phase structure on the corrosion behavior of Al100−xMox alloy thin films. J. Alloys Compd. 790, 563 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, Q.K., Liu, P., Ma, Y., Cao, Q.P., Wang, X.D., Zhang, D.X., Han, X.D., Zhang, Z., and Jiang, J.Z.: Super elastic strain limit in metallic glass films. Sci. Rep. 2, 852 (2012).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xie, L., Xiong, X., Zeng, Y., and Wang, Y.: The wear properties and mechanism of detonation sprayed iron-based amorphous coating. Surf. Coat. Technol. 366, 146 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarangi, C.K., Sahu, B.P., Mishra, B.K., and Mitra, R.: Pulse electrodeposition and characterization of graphene oxide particle-reinforced Ni–W alloy matrix nanocomposite coatings. J. Appl. Electrochem. 50, 265–279 (2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomann, A.L., Caillard, A., Raza, M., El Mokh, M., Cormier, P.A., and Konstantinidis, S.: Energy flux measurements during magnetron sputter deposition processes. Surf. Coat. Technol. 377, 124887 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dam, S., Thakur, A., Amarendra, G., and Hussain, S.: Synthesis and characterisation of MoS2 thin films by electron beam evaporation. Thin Solid Films 681, 78 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C.J., Huang, J.C., Chou, H.S., Lai, Y.H., Chang, L.W., Du, X.H., Chu, J.P., and Nieh, T.G.: On the amorphous and nanocrystalline Zr–Cu and Zr–Ti co-sputtered thin films. J. Alloys Compd. 483, 337 (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, M. and Mitra, R.: Effect of substrate bias on microstructure and properties of Ni–TiN nanocomposite thin films deposited by reactive magnetron co-sputtering. Surf. Coat. Technol. 251, 239 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Márquez, E., Saugar, E., Díaz, J.M., García-Vázquez, C., Fernández-Ruano, S.M., Blanco, E., Ruiz-Pérez, J.J., and Minkov, D.A.: The influence of Ar pressure on the structure and optical properties of non-hydrogenated a-Si thin films grown by rf magnetron sputtering onto room-temperature glass substrates. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 517, 32 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, M. and Mitra, R.: Effect of substrate temperature and annealing on structure, stress and properties of reactively co-sputtered Ni–TiN nanocomposite thin films. Thin Solid Films 624, 70 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xie, Q., Fu, Z., Wei, X., Li, X., Yue, W., Kang, J., Zhu, L., Wang, C., and Meng, J.: Effect of substrate bias current on structure and properties of CrNx films deposited by plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering. Surf. Coat. Technol. 365, 134 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, F., Munroe, P., Zhou, Z., and Xie, Z.: Influence of substrate bias on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of TiAlSiN thin films deposited by pulsed-DC magnetron sputtering. Thin Solid Films 639, 137 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, J.C., Wang, Q.M., Liu, Z.R., Jeong, S., Zhang, T.F., and Kim, K.H.: Influence of bias voltage on the microstructure, mechanical and corrosion properties of AlSiN films deposited by HiPIMS technique. J. Alloys Compd. 772, 112 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, L., Li, L., and Kuang, X.: Effect of substrate bias on microstructure and mechanical properties of WC–DLC coatings deposited by HiPIMS. Surf. Coat. Technol. 352, 33 (2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Z., Zhang, S., and Sun, D.: Effect of bias on structure mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of TiNx films prepared by ion source assisted magnetron sputtering. Thin Solid Films 676, 60 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hajihoseini, H., Kateb, M., Ingvarsson, S., and Gudmundsson, J.T.: Effect of substrate bias on properties of HiPIMS deposited vanadium nitride films. Thin Solid Films 663, 126 (2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, P.Y. and Koch, C.C.: Formation of amorphous Ni–Zr alloy powder by mechanical alloying of intermetallic powder mixtures and mixtures of nickel or zirconium with intermetallics. J. Mater. Sci. 23, 2837 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haruyama, O., Kuroda, A., and Asahi, N.: A comparison of the structures of NiZr amorphous alloys obtained by mechanical alloying and melt spinning. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 150, 483 (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apreutesei, M., Boissy, C., Mary, N., Arab Pour Yazdi, M., Billard, A., and Steyer, P.: Binary Zr–Ni/Co metallic glass films: Role of the structural state on their durability. Acta Mater. 89, 305 (2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turnow, H., Wendrock, H., Menzel, S., Gemming, T., and Eckert, J.: Synthesis and characterization of amorphous Ni–Zr thin films. Thin Solid Films 561, 48 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghidelli, M., Gravier, S., Blandin, J.J., Pardoen, T., and Raskin, J.P.: Compositional-induced structural change in ZrxNi100−x thin film metallic glasses. J. Alloys Compd. 615, S348 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mihailov, L., Spassov, T., and Bojinov, M.: Effect of microstructure on the electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution of amorphous and nanocrystalline Zr–Ni alloys. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 37, 10499 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jain, P., Gosselin, C., Skryabina, N., Fruchart, D., and Huot, J.: Hydrogenation properties of TiFe with Zr7Ni10 alloy as additive. J. Alloys Compd. 636, 375 (2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nayebossadri, S., Greenwood, C.J., Speight, J.D., and Book, D.: Thermal and structural stability of Zr-based amorphous thin films for potential application in hydrogen purification. Sep. Purif. Technol. 187, 173 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hantschel, T., Chow, E.M., Rudolph, D., Shih, C., Wong, L., and Fork, D.K.: Stressed-metal NiZr probes for atomic force microscopy. Microelectron. Eng. 68, 803 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manukyan, K., Amirkhanyan, N., Aydinyan, S., Danghyan, V., Grigoryan, R., Sarkisyan, N., Gasparyan, G., Aroutiounian, R., and Kharatyan, S.: Novel NiZr-based porous biomaterials: Synthesis and in vitro testing. Chem. Eng. J. 162, 406 (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du, J., Wen, B., Melnik, R., and Kawazoe, Y.: First-principles studies on structural, mechanical, thermodynamic and electronic properties of Ni–Zr intermetallic compounds. Intermetallics 54, 110 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghidelli, M., Gravier, S., Blandin, J-J., Djemia, P., Mompiou, F., Abadias, G., Raskin, J-P., and Pardoen, T.: Extrinsic mechanical size effects in thin ZrNi metallic glass films. Acta Mater. 90, 232 (2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghidelli, M., Idrissi, H., Gravier, S., Blandin, J-J., Raskin, J-P., Schryvers, D., and Pardoen, T.: Homogeneous flow and size dependent mechanical behavior in highly ductile Zr65Ni35 metallic glass films. Acta Mater. 131, 246 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apreutesei, M., Djemia, P., Belliard, L., Abadias, G., Esnouf, C., Billard, A., and Steyer, P.: Structural-elastic relationships of Zr–TL (TL = Cu, Co, Ni) thin films metallic glasses. J. Alloys Compd. 707, 126 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahu, B.P., Dutta, A., and Mitra, R.: Mechanism of negative strain rate sensitivity in metallic glass film. J. Alloys Compd. 784, 488 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahu, B.P., Sarangi, C.K., and Mitra, R.: Effect of Zr content on structure property relations of Ni–Zr alloy thin films with mixed nanocrystalline and amorphous structure. Thin Solid Films 660, 31 (2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhattacharya, D., Rao, T.V.C., Bhushan, K.G., Ali, K., Debnath, A., Singh, S., Arya, A., Bhattacharya, S., and Basu, S.: Thermal evolution of nanocrystalline co-sputtered Ni–Zr alloy films: Structural, magnetic and MD simulation studies. J. Alloys Compd. 649, 746 (2015).Google Scholar
Sahu, B.P. and Mitra, R.: Effect of annealing and process parameters on microstructure and properties of DC magnetron sputtered Ni–Zr alloy thin films. MRS Adv. 2, 1441 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahu, B.P., Chatterjee, A., Dutta, A., and Mitra, R.: In-situ and ex situ study of crystallization behaviour of magnetron sputtered Ni63Zr37 amorphous thin film. Philos. Mag. 99, 2545 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, X., Luo, F., Ou, F., Zhou, W., Zhu, D., and Huang, Z.: Effects of negative substrate bias voltage on the structure and properties of aluminum oxide films prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering. Appl. Surf. Sci. 259, 448 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, W.C. and Pharr, G.M.: Measurement of hardness and elastic modulus by instrumented indentation: Advances in understanding and refinements to methodology. J. Mater. Res. 19, 3 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saha, R. and Nix, W.D.: Effects of the substrate on the determination of thin film mechanical properties by nanoindentation. Acta Mater. 50, 23 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahu, B.P., Dutta, A., and Mitra, R.: Influence of composition on nanoindentation response of Ni–Zr alloy thin films. Metall. Mater. Trans. A 50, 5656 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasa, K., Kanno, I., and Kotera, H.: Handbook of Sputtering Technology, 2nd ed. (William Andrew Publishing, Oxford, 2012); pp. 1–644.Google Scholar
Qi, D., Lei, H., Wang, T., Pei, Z., Gong, J., and Sun, C.: Mechanical, microstructural, and tribological properties of reactive magnetron sputtered Cr–Mo–N films. J. Mater. Sci. Technol. 31, 55 (2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Y.T., Johnson, W.L., and Nicolet, M.A.: Dominant moving species in the formation of amorphous NiZr by solid-state reaction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 47, 800 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbour, J.C., Nastasi, M., and Mayer, J.W.: Mobility of Ni versus Zr in an amorphous Ni–Zr alloy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 48, 517 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, H., Averback, R.S., and Rothman, S.J.: Diffusivities of Ni, Zr, Au, and Cu in amorphous Ni–Zr alloys. Phys. Rev. B 33, 8825 (1986).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, N., Liu, L., Chen, Q., Pan, J., and Chan, K.C.: The effect of free volume on the deformation behaviour of a Zr-based metallic glass under nanoindentation. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40, 6055 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Sahu et al. supplementary material

Sahu et al. supplementary material

Download Sahu et al. supplementary material(File)
File 4.3 MB