Titanium nitride films have been prepared by the dynamic ion mixing process, where titanium vapor atoms are deposited simultaneously with nitrogen ion bombardment at 20 kV. The film quality and the crystallite orientation were examined using an X-ray diffractometer. It has been found that TiN can be formed for a wide range of the incident atomic ratio of Ti to N
+2, though Ti
2N and Ti are formed with increasing deposition rate of Ti. Under the formation conditions of TiN, the orientation of (200) for crystallites becomes dominant over that of (111) as the N
+ion flux or the ratio of N/Ti is increased.
As a field test to evaluate the coating performance, TiN films were formed on microdrills of WC-Co alloy by the dynamic ion mixing process. Drills coated with (200) films of TiN exhibited performance twice as good as those with (111) films.
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