THE INFLUENCE OF VARIOUS PROCESS GASES ON THE MAGNETRON SPUTTERING OFZRB12

Decorative coatings of zirconium boride were deposited on steel and mo lybdenum substrates employing d.c. magnetron sputter deposition using ZrB12 targets and neon, argon and krypton as process gases. The charac terization of the coatings occurred by means of scanning electron micr oscopy, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, Vickers micro hardness measurements and quantitative colour analysis. The effect of the ion bombardment caused by the applied bias voltage using various p rocess gases on the film formation was investigated. Measurements of t he deposition rates yielded the highest values for neon and argon. In the case of neon and krypton the stoichiometry of the extremely fine-g rained films containing the ZrB2 and a distorted boron phase could be varied by using different bias voltages in a wide range, whereas the b ombardment with argon ions seemed to have less effect on the stoichiom etry. The maximum Vickers microhardness of the highly reflecting silve r-grey films was found to be approximately 2200 HV 0.01.