High energy xenon ion beam assisted deposition of TiN film and its industrial application

TiN films have been synthesized by ion beam assisted deposition employing xenon ions with an energy of 40 keV. The formed TiN films were investigated systematically in respect of surface morphology, composition, structure and mechanical properties. Then, they were applied to surface protection of scoring dies. Atomic force microscopy and interferometric observation showed that the TiN film is relatively smooth. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy analysis indicated that few xenon atoms are retained in the film. It was found by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction experiments that the formed TiN is a nanocrystal (< 10 nm) film and exhibits slightly (200) preferred orientation. An ultra low load microhardness indentor system was used to examine the plastic property of the film and a hardness of 2300 kgf mm^–2 was calculated from the measured data. Scratch tests showed that the adhesion of TiN film deposited by ion beam assisted deposition at ambient temperature is superior to that of high temperature physical vapour deposited (PVD) TiN film. Both a pin-on-dick tribotest and SRV wear test revealed that the wear resistance of the specimen can be greatly improved by TiN coating. A five times increase of service life of different scoring dies could be obtained by protection of TiN coating.