| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering Division | Thursday Sessions |
| Session SE+PS-ThM |
| Session: | Plasma-assisted Surface Modification and Deposition Processes |
| Presenter: | Jeremy Mettler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Authors: | J. Mettler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign D.E. Barlaz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign B.E. Jurczyk, Starfire Industries LLC D.N. Ruzic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
We discuss the development of a plasma-enhanced, laser-induced surface conversion process for forming TiN, a common coating favored for its hardness and corrosion resistance. This process uses a pulsed femtosecond laser to provide localized energy deposition at the Ti surface, along with a secondary plasma to supply reactive N species. This method allows the surface conversion to be conducted in a single pass, rather than requiring a pretreatment step in Ar atmosphere for oxygen removal. The nitrogen radicals react preferentially where the laser provides sufficient energy to cause conversion of the native oxide layer. The conversion efficiency was investigated for DC and RF plasmas, as well as for different plasma powers, pressures, N precursors, and sample biases. Preliminary results with no secondary plasma achieved surface conversions of up to 9% TiN, measured using XPS. The inclusion of a secondary plasma provides a marked improvement over this previous result, both in terms of oxide removal and nitride formation. Laser powers for this work were between 3-5 W. A Langmuir probe diagnostic was used to compare plasma density at different powers (on the order of 100 W) and for different compositions.