AVS 51st International Symposium
    Advanced Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuP

Paper SE-TuP4
Microstructure and Properties Changes in CrN Films Influenced by an Implanted Cr Interlayer

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 4:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: S. Han, National Taichung Institute of Technology, Taiwan
Authors: H.-Y. Chen, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
S. Han, National Taichung Institute of Technology, Taiwan
H.C. Shih, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Correspondent: Click to Email
A chromium interlayer was implanted in (100) silicon using a metal vapor vacuum arc ion implanter, and then CrN films were deposited by cathodic arc plasma deposition. Two types of the CrN films denoted as CrN/Cr/Si (with an implanted Cr interlayer) and CrN/Si (without an implanted Cr interlayer). XRD patterns revealed the presence of CrN (220) preferred orientation for both cases, indicating that regardless of whether the films included a Cr interlayer, the preferred orientation and the columnar structure of CrN films were unchanged. But the interlayer induced finer grain structure and reduced the residual stress of the films from -8.1 GPa to -2.8 GPa, which relaxed by up to 65%. Moreover, the CrN films with a Cr interlayer were less hard and exhibited a higher electrical resistivity than those without. Both specimens were annealed at 500°C for 2 h in an N@sub 2@/H@sub 2@ atmosphere to elucidate the thermal stability of the CrN film. The CrN/Si revealed a phase transformation from CrN to Cr@sub 2@N during annealing, which is due to largely stress relaxation in the film. A implanted Cr interlayer can effectively relax the residual stress in CrN films and prevent a occurrence of phase transformation during annealing. The correlation between the properties and microstructure of the CrN film is also discussed.