DEPOSITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF TITANIUM CARBIDE COATINGS USING LASER-ABLATION METHOD

Carbide coatings have a large number of applications in modern technol ogy owing to their interesting, and in some ways unique, physical and chemical properties. Thin film coatings of titanium carbide were depos ited on Si (100) substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method . The structural and microstructural properties of these films have be en characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission el ectron microscopy techniques. The mechanical properties of the films w ere evaluated to measure the hardness and modulus values. It has been shown that the films deposited at higher temperature have the best cry stalline quality structure and also have higher hardness and modulus v alues compared to the film deposited at lower temperature. Optimizatio n of laser deposition parameters to obtain high quality thin films wil l be discussed in detail. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.