Growth of hard metal films by deep oscillation magnetron sputtering

ABSTRACT Pulsed vapour fluxes with proper controlled time duration were proved to be an important controlling dimension for the deposition of a desired thin film. In this work, deep oscillation magnetron sputtering was employed to tailor the ionized pulsed flux for Nb and Cr thin film grown on AISI 304 stainless steel. Through tuning the micropulse oscillating voltage-off time from 10 to 40 μs, Nb and Cr thin films showed an obvious variation on microstructure owing to the deposition flux transited from continuous to chopped ones. The deposited Nb thin films showed Nb(110) preferred orientation experienced a nanocrystallization process with compressive residual stress showing a slightly decrease. While Cr thin films showed Cr(110) preferred orientation without an obvious nancrystallization trend with its compressive stress turning to be tensile. The tailoring of the microstructure and properties relied on interval time between the two interrupted ionized deposition flux.