Influence of the pre-treatments and process temperature on the adhesion of TiN films deposited by PBII&D over nitrided austenitic stainless steel

Abstract

In this work the influence of pre-treatment cleaning processes in the adhesion of TiN films deposited by the plasma based ion implantation and deposition (PBII&D) process over plasma nitrided AISI 316L stainless steel was investigated, varying the gas composition, the duration of the sputtering process and the temperature in the same deposition chamber. The TiN film morphology was scrutinized with scanning electron microscopy on the surface complemented with focus ion beam for the cross section. The film microstructure was characterized with X ray diffraction. The adhesion of the coatings was studied using the Scratch Test with constant load at different values and the Rockwell C indentation method as well. It was found that only with the sputtering carried out in a H - Ar gas mixing at 300 ºC temperature used as pre-treatment was successful to prepare the nitrided surface for the subsequent TiN deposition by the PBII&D process.