• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.205-210
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• 2015

NbN coatings were prepared by ICP (inductively coupled plasma) assisted magnetron sputtering from a Nb metal target in $Ar+N_2$ atmosphere at various ICP powers. Effect of ICP on the microstructure, crystalline structure and mechanical properties of NbN coatings was investigated by field emission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation measurements. The results show that ICP power has a significant influence on coating microstructure, structure and mechanical properties of NbN coatings. With the increasing of ICP power, coating microstructure evolves from the columnar structure of DC process to a highly dense one. Crystalline structure of NbN coatings were changed from cubic ${\delta}$-NbN to hexagonal ${\beta}-Nb_2N$ with increase of ICP power. The maximum nano hardness of 25.4 GPa with Ra roughness of 0.5 nm was obtained from the NbN coating sputtered at ICP power of 200 W.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.136-141
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• 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
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 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 the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2014

Niobium nitride coatings have many potential thin film applications due to their chemical inertness, good mechanical properties, temperature stability and superconducting properties. In this study, $NbN_x$ coatings were prepared by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted DC magnetron sputtering method on the surface of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steels. Effects of target power were studied on mechanical and chemical properties of the coatings. The coating structure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The coating hardness was measured by micro-knoop hardness tester. The coating thickness was measured using a 3D profiler and wear characteristics were estimated using a ball-on-disk wear tester. The thickness of the $NbN_x$ coatings increased linearly from 300 nm to 2000 nm as the Nb target power increased, and it showed over $HK_{0.005}$ 4000 hardness above Nb target power of 300 W. Hexagonal ${\delta}^{\prime}$-NbN phase and cubic ${\delta}$-NbN phase were observed in the coating films and the hardness of the NbNx coatings was higher when these two peaks were mixed. The corrosion resistance increased with the increase of the Nb target power.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.236-242
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• 2001

HfN/Si$_3$N$_4$and NbN/Si$_3$N$_4$ multilayer coatings were deposited onto a high speed tool steel substrate by reactive sputtering and their mechanical properties were evaluated in terms of the dependence of hardness and adhesion strength on the sputter deposition process parameters. The hardnesses of both HfN/Si$_3$N$_4$and NbN/Si$_3$N$_4$ multiplayer coatings increase up to the flux ratio of 0.4 but nearly do not change after that as the $N_2$/Ar flux ratio in nitride sputter deposition increases. The hardnesses of both multiplayer coatings nearly do not change with annealing at low temperatures but decrease owing to oxidation with annealing at a high temperature like 80$0^{\circ}C$ after depositing the layers by sputtering. Post-annealing at low temperatures increases the adhesion strength of the multilayers. but high temperature annealing is not desirable since it decreases the adhesion strength besides the hardness deterioration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.189-189
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• 2012

금속 양이온이 도핑된 3성분계 이상의 나노구조코팅은 다양한 성능 개발 및 물성 향상을 위해서 개발되어져 왔다. 기존 CrN 코팅에 비해 Cr-Nb-N 코팅은 높은 경도와 내부식성을 나타내는 것으로 알려져 있다. 공정 제어를 통해서 - Cr-Nb-N 코팅을 제작하였으며, 상분석 및 물성 변화에 대하여 고찰하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.274-274
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• 2014

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.524-530
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• 2008

Anti-Reflective (AR) thin film coatings of $SiO_2$ (n= 1.48) and $TiO_2$ (n=2.17) were deposited by ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) with End-Hall ion source and conventional electron beam (e-beam) evaporation to investigate the effect of deposition method on the refractive indicies (n) of the fIlms. Green-light generation using a GaAs laser diode was achieved via excitation of the second harmonic. The latter resulted from the transmission of the fundamental guided-mode wave of 1064 nm through periodically poled $LiNbO_3$. Large differences in the refractive indicies of each of the layers in the multilayer coating may improve AR performance. IBAD of $SiO_2$ reduced its refractive index from 1.45 to 1.34 at 1064 nm. Conversely, e-beam evaporation of $TiO_2$ increased its refractive index from 1.80 to 2.11. In addition, no fluctuations in absorption at the wavelength of 1064 nm were found. The results suggest that films prepared by different deposition methods can increase the effectiveness of multilayer AR coatings.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.597-609
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• 2020

Accident Tolerant Fuels have been widely studied since the Fukushima-Daiichi accident in 2011 as one of the options on how to further enhance the safety of nuclear power plants. Deposition of protective coatings on nuclear fuel claddings has been considered as a near-term concept that will reduce the high-temperature oxidation rate and enhance accidental tolerance of the cladding while providing additional benefits during normal operation and transients. This study focuses on experimental testing of Zr-based alloys coated with Cr-based coatings using Physical Vapour Deposition. The results of long-term corrosion tests, as well as tests simulating postulated accidents, are presented. Zr-1%Nb alloy used as nuclear fuel cladding serves as a substrate and Cr, CrN, Cr_xN_y layers are deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering and reactive magnetron sputtering. The deposition procedures are optimized in order to improve coating properties. Coated as well as reference uncoated samples were experimentally tested. The presented results include standard long-term corrosion tests at 360℃ in WWER water chemistry, burst (creep) tests and mainly single and double-sided high-temperature steam oxidation tests between 1000 and 1400℃ related to postulated Loss-of-coolant accident and Design extension conditions. Coated and reference samples were characterized pre- and post-testing using mechanical testing (microhardness, ring compression test), Thermal Evolved Gas Analysis analysis (hydrogen, oxygen concentration), optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (EDS, WDS, EBSD) and X-ray diffraction.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.368-375
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• 1995

Thermal CVD method is in general used for the fabrication of TiC/$Al_2O_3$-coated carbide tools. The growth of TiC layer and the coating morphology depended on the chemical composition of the hard metal substrate on which the tool properties were strongly influenced. TiC-coated layer was grown by the diffusion of carbon from the substrate, whereas the growth of $Al_2O_3$ layer was unrelated to the composition of substrate. In the nitride hard coatings of Zr, Nb and Mo metals deposited on high speed steel substrate by magnetron sputtering, the reactivity of the metal elements was decreased with increasing group number in one period of the periodic system. The hard material films exhibited the highest adhesion with the chemical composition of stoichiometry or substoichiometry. The critical load as a measure of adhesion was evaluated using scratch tester. The CVD tools indicated the values of 80 and 40N in the coated layers with proper bonding to the substrate and with $\eta$ phase of 1$\mu\textrm{m}$ in the interface respectively, but the nitride films prepared by sputtering of PVD showed only the values between 10 and 20N.