| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Thin Films and Coatings: Properties, Processing and Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
Transition Metal Dependency on the Hardness of Sputter Deposited Metal Carbide Thin Films |
| Author(s) |
Gregory B. Thompson, Corinne Haas Blacksher, Alyssa Stubbers, Chris Weinberger |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Gregory B. Thompson |
| Abstract Scope |
Requisite to abrasive or cutting applications is a sufficiently high hardness film or coating. In this talk, the influence of transition metal type to hardness is reported with respect to different transition metal carbide (TMC) films. Here, ZrC, NbC, and TaC were each reactively sputter deposited over a pressure range of 4 to 13 mTorr. As the pressure increased, the hardness for all TMC films decreased, as would be expected. However, these values were especially low (typically half) for ZrC and NbC, over all pressures, as compared to their bulk values. In contrast, TaC was found to harder than its bulk value, even being in the superhard regime, in the lowest pressure deposits. These variations resulted in distinctly different responses to microstructure cracking. The difference in hardness between the films is explained by atomic peening effects that densify the film as a function of momentum transfer. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Ceramics, Thin Films and Interfaces, Characterization |