SYNTHESIS OF THIN COATINGS BY PLASMA-ASSISTED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION USING METALLOORGANIC COMPOUNDS AS PRECURSORS

The pulsed d.c. plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition process usi ng four metallo-organic compounds as precursors (MO-PACVD) was investi gated. The compounds contain titanium or zirconium as metal to deposit Ti(C,N) or Zr(C,N) layers on steel substrates or hard metals. The inf luence of experimental parameters such as gas pressure, coating temper ature and precursor evaporation temperature on the layer properties ha s been examined. For in-situ process control optical emission spectros copy was used. It is shown that it is possible to decrease the coating temperature to 300-degrees-C and to deposit chlorine-free layers by M O-PACVD.