THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN-CONTENT ON THE STRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF TIN FILMS PRODUCED BY MAGNETRON SPUTTERING

Titanium nitride TiNchi layers with different nitrogen content have be en deposited on hard tool steel substrates by unbalanced magnetron spu ttering at different nitrogen partial pressures so that the effect of nitrogen content on the structural and mechanical properties of the fi lms could be studied. The film microhardness was found to have a maxim um at chi approximate to 0.9. For this value of chi a maximum content of carbon and the highest lattice distortion (especially for the (200) plane) was observed. Chemical bonding between the film components was shown to be the determining factor for the microhardness, as well as intrinsic stress created due to lattice imperfections.