Structural and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies on reactive magnetron sputtered titanium oxynitride (TiON) thin films

Titanium oxynitride films were deposited onto commercially pure titanium substrates by direct current reactive magnetron sputtering method using Ti targets and an Ar–N₂–O₂ mixture discharge gas. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy survey spectra on the etched surfaces of TiON films exhibited the characteristic Ti 2p, N 1s, and O 1s peaks at the corresponding binding energies 454.5, 397.0, and 530.7 eV, respectively. The surface topography of these coatings was studied using atomic force microscopy. The characteristic Raman peaks at 200 and 641 cm⁻¹ for the TiN bonds and at 148, 398 ,and 518 cm⁻¹ for the TiO₂ bonds were observed from the Laser Raman spectrometer. The potentiodynamic polarization studies in simulated bodily fluid were performed and the results are reported in this article.