Influência da temperatura do substrato na estrutura de filmes finos de ZrxSi1-XN depositados por magnetron sputtering reativo

Abstract

Thin films of ZrxSi1-XN were obtained using the reactive magnetron sputtering technique in order to evaluate the influence of substrate temperature on structure, morphology and hardness. Two samples with silicon contents of 1.6 and 8.0 at. % were chosen and deposited on a substrate heated to 700ºC. Thin films were characterized by RBS, GIXRD, SEM-FEG and nanohardness. From the GIXRD analyses, it was possible to observe that the face-centered cubic (CFC) phase of ZrN was maintained at high deposition temperature for both samples with a preferential growth orientation in the (200) direction for the sample with 1.6 at. % Si and a mixed growth orientation for the sample with 8.0 at. % Si in the (100) and (200) directions. XPS analyzes confirm that silicon is present in the structure in the form of Si3N4, regardless of the silicon content adopted and the deposition temperature, in addition to the presence of free silicon (Si°) for the sample with 8.0 at. % of silicon deposited at 700ºC. The presence of Si° ratified the decomposition of Si3N4 into Si and N2 due to the temperature of the substrate for high silicon contents. From the micrographs obtained by SEM-FEG, it was possible to verify the formation of a morphology with columnar grains present in both samples with the increase of the substrate temperature, in addition to a denser microstructure for the sample with 1.6 at. % of silicon. The highest hardness values were verified for the ZrSiN_1.6_700 sample. The increase in temperature did not promote significant gains in hardness for the sample with 8.0 at. % of silicon, with all values within the error margin.