CORRELATION OF PARTICLE-FLUX PARAMETERS WITH THE PROPERTIES OF THIN TUNGSTEN CARBIDE FILMS

A new spectroscopic system has been developed to analyse the particle flux with respect to mass and energy in an r.f. magnetron sputtering device. The magnetron has been used to prepare thin WC(x) (0.5 < x < 1) films under various deposition parameters (substrate bias, and pressures of the working gas). The aim of this work is to correlate the flux of the particles and their kinetic energies on the substrate with the structure, morphology and composition of the growing films. The properties of the films have been determined by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Also the mechanical properties (hardness and stress) have been measured and correlated to the particle fluxes. If, for example, the pressure of the working gas is increased from 2 x 10(-1) to 3 Pa the energy of the W+, C+, WC+ and Ar+ ions decreases from 28 to 18 eV with a reduced width of the energy distribution. This reduction in the ion plating energy results in a change in the texture from a beta-WC1-x(200) to a beta-WC1-x(111) configuration and a simultaneous shift from a compressive stress of +3 GPa to a tensile stress of -1 GPa.