Magnetron sputter deposition of hafnium nitride coating on high density graphite and niobium substrates

Hafnium nitride (HfN) is a refractory compound considered to be a suitable material for reaction barriers. The present paper deals with the preparation of HfN thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering on high density (HD) graphite and niobium substrates. Deposition process parameters have been optimised with Si(100) substrate in order to get HfN coating of 3 μm thickness. The optimised parameters were used to deposit HfN on HD graphite and on niobium substrates. The results showed that HfN coating with a thickness of 2.8 μm was successfully deposited on HD graphite and niobium substrates. The presence of HfN was confirmed by glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD studies on HfN coating on Si(100), HD graphite and Nb substrates showed nanocrystalline grains of size 130, 55 and 46 Å, respectively. The surface morphology of HfN coating on HD graphite and niobium by atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that nanoparticles are getting agglomerated into clusters. The HfN coating on niobium substrate exhibited good adhesion compared to that on HD graphite as studied by microscratch test. The thermal stress generated in the sputter deposited HfN coating on HD graphite and niobium substrates were calculated by analytical formula for thermal stress. The tensile and highly compressive stresses observed in the HfN coating on niobium and HD graphite, respectively, indicated a lower adhesive strength of the coating on the later than that of the former.