A TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY STUDY ON SPUTTERED ZR-B AND ZR-B-N FILMS

A simple technique for preparing thin foils of hard coatings for transmission electron microscopy analysis is presented. The structure and morphology of coatings deposited non-reactively as well as reactively by d.c. magnetron sputtering from a ZrB2 target were investigated. The influence of the deposition parameters sputtering power, substrate temperature, bias voltage and reactive gas flow on the film structure was determined. Three characteristic structure types could be distinguished, i.e. crystalline, amorphous and a transition zone between crystalline and amorphous film growth. The appearance of these structure types is affected by the deposition parameters and summarized in structure diagrams. The dependence of the grain size of crystalline films on the sputtering power, the substrate temperature and on the bias voltage was investigated.