• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.33-37
• /
• 2017

Single phase niobium nitride (NbN) coatings were deposited using asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering by varying pulse frequency and duty cycle of pulsed plasmas. Crystal structure, microstructure, morphology and mechanical properties were examined using XRD, FE-SEM, AFM and nanoindentation. Upon increasing pulse frequencies and decreasing duty cycles, the coating morphology was changed from a pyramidal-shaped columnar structure to a round-shaped dense structure with finer grains. Asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtered NbN coatings deposited at pulse frequency of 25 kHz is characterized by higher hardness up to 17.4 GPa, elastic modulus up to 193.9 GPa, residual compressive stress and a smaller grain size down to 27.5 nm compared with dc sputtered NbN coatings at pulse frequency of 0 kHz. The results suggest that the asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering technique is very beneficial to reactive deposition of transition-metal nitrides such as NbN coatings.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.461-466
• /
• 2016

Nanocrystalline vanadium nitride (VN) coatings were deposited using asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering to further understand the influence of the pulsed plasmas on the crystal structure, microstructure and mechanical properties. Properties of VN coatings were investigated with FE-SEM, XRD and nanoindentation. The results show that, with the increasing pulse frequency and decreasing duty cycle, the coating morphology changed from a porous columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. Asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtered VN coatings showed higher hardness, elastic modulus and residual compressive stress than dc sputtered VN coatings. The results suggest that asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering technique is very beneficial for the reactive sputtering deposition of VN coatings.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.179-184
• /
• 2011

This work investigated the effect of duty cycle and pulse frequency on the microstructures and properties of titanium nitride thin films deposited by asymmetric bipolar pulsed DC sputtering system. Oscilloscope traces of the I-V waveforms indicate high power and high current density outputs during the asymmetric bipolar pulsed mode. The grain size decreases with decreasing duty cycle. The duty cycle has a strong influence not only on the microstructural properties but also on the mechanical properties of titanium nitride films. Comparing with the continuous DC sputtering, the titanium nitride films prepared by pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar process exhibit better properties.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.86-92
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this comparative study was to investigate the properties of chromium nitride coatings deposited by asymmetric bipolar pulsed DC sputtering and DC sputtering system. Oscilloscope traces of the I-V waveforms indicate high power and high current density outputs during the asymmetric bipolar pulsed mode. The grain size decreases with decreasing duty cycle. The duty cycle has a strong influence not only on the microstructural properties but also on the mechanical properties of chromium nitride coatings. Comparing with the continuous DC sputtering, the chromium nitride coatings prepared by pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar process also exhibit better surface roughness.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.168-173
• /
• 2014

The paper presents the comparative results of TiAlN coatings deposited by DC and pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar magnetron sputtering systems. The results show that, with the decreasing duty cycle and increasing pulse frequency, the coating morphology changes from a columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. Pulsed sputtered TiAlN coatings showed higher hardness, higher residual stress, and smaller grain sizes than dc prepared TiAlN coatings. Moreover residual stress of pulsed sputtered TiAlN coatings increased on increasing pulse frequency. Meanwhile, the surface roughness decreased continuously with increasing pulsed DC frequency up to 50 kHz.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.136-141
• /
• 2015

The paper presents the comparative results of NbN coatings deposited by DC and pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar magnetron sputtering systems. The results show that, with the decreasing duty cycle and increasing pulse frequency, the coating morphology changes from a columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. The Pulsed sputtered NbN coatings showed higher hardness, higher residual stress, and smaller grain sizes than those of DC prepared NbN coatings. Moreover residual stress of pulsed sputtered NbN coatings increased on increasing pulse frequency. Meanwhile, the surface roughness decreased continuously with increasing pulsed DC frequency up to 50 kHz.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.50 no.6
• /
• pp.390-395
• /
• 2013

Nanocrystalline CrN films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by means of asymmetric pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering. We investigated the growth behavior, corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of CrN films with a change in the duty cycle and pulse frequency. The grain size of the CrN films decreased from 25.4 nm to 11.2 nm upon a decrease in the duty cycle. The corrosion potentials for the CrN films by DC sputtering was approximately - 0.6 V, and it increased to - 0.3 V in the CrN films which underwent pulsed sputtering. The nanoindentation hardness of the CrN films also increased with a decrease in the duty cycle. This enhancement of the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of pulsed sputtered CrN films could be attributed to the densification and surface smoothness of the microstructure of the films.

• Particle and aerosol research
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.27-31
• /
• 2014

A simple bimodal model has been developed to analyze charged particle coagulation by modifying previously suggested bimdal model for evolution of particle generation and growth. In the present model, two monodisperse modes are used and 40 charge nodes are assigned to each mode to account both change of the particle size and charge distribution. In addition, we also implemented the effect of electrostatic dispersion loss in the present model. Based on the developed model, we analyzed coagulation of asymmetric bipolar charged particles by computing evolutions of particle number concentration, geometric mean diameter of particles, charge asymmetric ratio and geometric standard deviation of particle size distribution for various initial charge asymmetric ratios. The number concentration of asymmetric bipolar charged particles decreases faster than that of neutral particles but that does not give faster growth of particles since the electrostatic dispersion loss overwhelms particle growth by coagulation.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.447-452
• /
• 2014

This paper presents the effects of pulse plasma parameters such as duty cycle and pulse frequency on the properties of TiAlN coatings deposited by asymmetric bipolar pulsed DC magnetron sputtering systems. The results show that, with decreasing duty cycle and increasing pulse frequency, the coating morphology changes from a columnar structure to a dense structure with finer grains. Pulsed sputtered TiAlN coatings showed higher hardness, higher residual stress, and smaller grain sizes than did DC prepared TiAlN coatings. Moreover, residual stress and nanoindentation hardness of pulsed sputtered TiAlN coatings increased with increasing pulse frequency. Meanwhile, the surface roughness decreased continuously with increasing pulsed DC frequency up to 50 kHz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2017.05a
• /
• pp.103.2-103.2
• /
• 2017

Nanocrystalline HfN coatings were prepared by reactively sputtering Hf metal target with N2 gas using a magnetron sputtering system operated in DC and ABPP (asymmetric bipolar pulsed plasma) condition with various duties and frequencies. The effects of duty and frequency, ranging from 75 to 100 % and 5 to 50 kHz, on the coating microstructure, crystallographic and mechanical properties were systematically investigated with FE-SEM, AFM, XRD and nanoindentation. The results show that pulsed plasma has a significant influence on coating microstructure and mechanical properties of HfN coatings. Coating microstructure evolves from the columnar structure to a highly dense one as duty decreases. Average grain size and nano hardness of HfN coatings were also investigated with various pulsed conditions.