Pulsed laser deposition of tungsten carbide thin films on silicon (100) substrate

A method of synthesizing tungsten carbide (WC) thin films by a pulsed YAG laser deposition is investigated. WC thin films are deposited on silicon (100) substrates by using WC-5%Co alloy targets. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction shows that the strong peaks of W2C appear at the substrate temperature of 500 degrees C. Beside the strong peaks of W2C, weak peaks of WC and W3Co3C appear at the substrate temperature of 650 degrees C. Auger electron spectroscopy shows that the almost stoichiometric WC films are deposited at the methane gas pressure of 1.0 Pa. Morphological features of the samples have been obtained by employing the technique of scanning electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to obtain structural and compositional information about the samples.