AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Thin Films Wednesday Sessions
       Session TF-WeM

Paper TF-WeM10
Hard Coatings of Tungsten Nitride Grown by Reactive Sputtering and Laser Ablation

Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 11:20 am, Room 306

Session: Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Thin Films
Presenter: E.C. Samano, CCMC-UNAM, Mexico
Authors: E.C. Samano, CCMC-UNAM, Mexico
A. Clemente, CCMC-UNAM, Mexico
M.J. Oviedo, CCMC-UNAM, Mexico
G. Soto, CCMC-UNAM, Mexico
Correspondent: Click to Email
The search for materials showing chemical inertness and high hardness, elastic modulus and melting point is still intense. Transition metal nitride coatings are an alternative because they have been traditionally used as protective coatings against wear and corrosion. Due to the fact that refractory metals are hard materials with a high melting point, tungsten nitride coatings are an excellent choice. Their properties can be tailored by tuning the nitrogen content during film synthesis. The investigation on the relationship between thin film preparation conditions and mechanical properties for tungsten nitride films is not as well understood as other transition metal nitrides, like titanium nitride. We report the growth of tungsten nitride films grown by two different deposition methods, reactive sputtering and laser ablation, in the ambient of N@sub 2@ at various pressures on stainless steel substrates. The composition of the films is determined by AES and XPS. The stoichiometry of the coatings grown by reactive sputtering are found to be W@sub2-x@N, 0@<=@x@<=@0.5, while those grown by laser ablation are W@sub2@N, WN and WN@sub2@. The mechanical properties of the films grown by both deposition methods are studied as a function of N@sub2@ pressure. The hardness of the deposited films resulted to be in the 25 to 35 GPa range.