Investigation of TiC thin ®lms synthesised by low energy IBAD from electron evaporation of TiC powder

Electron beam evaporation of TiC powder has been used to deposit TiC thin ®lms on room temperature silicon wafers with and without simultaneous assistance of low energy bombardment of Ar‡ at 0±450 eV. The composition of the TiC ®lms was studied by Auger electron spectroscopy, while the preferential orientation of the deposited ®lm and phase composition were determined by X-ray diffraction. We have investigated the in¯uence of the carbon and oxygen content on both the morphological and mechanical properties of the TiC ®lms. The in¯uence on the ®lm properties and their composition of the ion beam acceleration voltage, argon ¯ow, operating pressure as well as the ion impact angle were also investigated. Nanoindentation tests indicate that the synthesised TiC ®lms exhibit both a high hardness (12±18 GPa) and a high deposition rate (1.5 mm/h). # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved