Abstract
Surface roughness, hardness and residual stress of TiN films deposited on stainless steel substrates by an arc ion plating method were examined by changing arc current and nitrogen gas pressure, respectively. The TiN films have an average roughness of about 0.1 to 0.3μm, while the surface roughness decreases with increasing nitrogen gas pressure. Vickers micro hardness tests revealed high hardness (HV 1650-2500) whose value depended on nitrogen gas pressure and arc current, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed the ratio of nitrogen to titanium (N/Ti) of from 0.85 to 0.92 in the as-deposited TiN film.
The X-ray diffraction pattern showed the crystal orientation of the TiN film depends on the nitrogen gas pressure. By using a two-exposure method, residual stresses in the TiN films were measured as a function of nitrogen gas pressure and arc current, respectively. The TiN films showed very high compressive residual stresses of about-8.0 to -7.0 GPa.
