Titanium containing DLC coatings from a PACVD process using titanium (IV) isopropylate as a precursor
Introduction
Titanium and titanium oxide are well known materials with good biological compatibility. This is also the case for the DLC material. Therefore, titanium containing DLC coatings is of interest for applications in medical implantation.
Recently, we reported on Ti-DLC film deposition from titanium ethoxide [1]. In this investigation we showed that the Ti content of the deposited films, depending on the experimental conditions, was much higher than that of the MO precursor. Further, we observed the formation of TiC bonding for decreasing self-bias voltage. In the present paper these investigations with Ti containing precursors are expanded to the titanium (IV) isopropylate compound in order to detect common behavior.
Section snippets
Experimental
For the deposition of Ti containing DLC films we used a plasma activated process (PACVD). Experimental details have recently been published elsewhere [2]. We reported on the deposition of Fe and Ti containing amorphous carbon films from various solid volatile iron–organic chemicals such as ferrocene [Fe(C5H5)2] [2], [3], [4], [5], cyclooctatetraen-iron-tricarbonyl [C8H8Fe(CO)3] [4], [5], methyl-cyclopentadienyl-iron-dicarbonyl [CpFeCH3(CO)2] [5] and fluid titanium ethoxide [1].
In the present
Film growth rates and simple mechanical testing
The growth rates determined with a profilometer (alpha-step 200, Tencor Instruments) as a function of the self-bias voltage USB during deposition are shown in Fig. 2. We observe a steep decrease of the growth rate in the self-bias voltage regime from 0 to about −300 V (referred to as region 1, from about 3.5 to about 1.5 μm/h). For self-bias voltages of −400 to −1000 V (region 2) the growth rate is within the scattering bars (Fig. 2) constant. The decreasing growth rate with decreasing self-bias
Conclusions
We briefly summarize the main conclusions of our present study.
- 1.
We successfully deposited hard Ti containing films from the Ti(IV) isopropylate using a plasma activated process. The film composition is in the range of Ti:O:C=23:29:48 at%. The Ti content in the film is much higher than in the MO precursor.
- 2.
In order to deposit films with high hardness and good adhesion to the Si substrate, negative self-bias potential below −300 V had to be applied.
- 3.
The increased hardness and better adhesion for high
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Present address: Institute of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.