Influence of sputtering parameters on the structural and mechanical properties of TiC thin film coating

Titanium carbide (TiC) nanostructured thin films coating were deposited on a commercially pure titanium (CpTi) substrate to enhance the surface properties using Radio Frequency (RF) Magnetron Sputtering coating technique. The sputtering time, power and temperature were varied during the process to study the influence of the sputtering parameters on the evolving properties of the thin films. The surface morphology of the films was studied using Field emission scanning electron microscope FESEM. Atomic force microscope was used to analyse the surface topography. The mechanical properties of the film were measured using nanoindentation. The structural properties were characterized using Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The microstructure results of the planar view revealed the film microstructural evolution with varying sputtering parameters. The XRD analyses confirmed the presence of nanostructured TiC film with (1 1 0) preferential growth diffractogram. Absence of Raman active vibrational diffraction peaks was noticed for films with continuous and defect-free microstructure produced at RF power of 200 W. The Young modulus and hardness varied with the sputtering parameters with the highest hardness value attained at 250 W.