STUDIES OF PVD INTERFACES GENERATED BY TI IONS IN A STEERED ARC-DISCHARGE

A critical stage of the combined steered are and unbalanced magnetron process is the titanium ion etch which improves the adhesion of the TI N coating. This study uses Conversion Electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (GEMS) to investigate the phases that are formed when steel substrates are given a metal ion etch as a pretreatment prior to the deposition of ceramic coating of the type TiC/N. To detect iron containing phases of a thickness in the order of nanometers it has been necessary to en rich the substrates with the Mossbauer isotope Fe-57. The enriched sub strates have been treated by a range of Ti ion etch processes and then characterised by GEMS. This technique has identified a number of phas es, including the FeTi phase.