Structure, Optical and Mechanical Properties of Direct Current Magnetron Sputtered Carbon: Vanadium Nanocomposite Thin Films
The structure, the optical and the mechanical properties of carbon: vanadium nanocomposite thin films (∼1 at.% to 48 at.% V) grown by direct current magnetron sputtering at 110 °C are investigated using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy,
spectroscopic ellipsometry, and nano-indentation. At all compositions a phase separation into cubic vanadium carbide, VC
x
, (x ≤ 1) and carbon is observed, the structure of both phases changing continuously with the vanadium content. The film microstructure consists
of statistically distributed spherical VC
x
particles in a carbon matrix at V concentrations of up to about 35 at.%, and at higher V concentrations of elongated, dendrite-like VC
x
nanocrystallites, which are separated by a carbon tissue phase. The microstructure
hints to a transition from purely repeated nucleation dominated growth to a regime with competing repeated nucleation and surface diffusion. The optical properties are controlled by the phase composition of the films. The hardness is nearly independent of the composition, thus enabling the
independent tuning of the absorption behavior at constant hardness.
Keywords: HARDNESS; MAGNETRON SPUTTERING; MICROSTRUCTURE; NANOCOMPOSITES; SOLAR ABSORBER MATERIALS
Document Type: Short Communication
Publication date: 01 January 2013
- Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters (NNL) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal consolidating nanoscale research activities in all disciplines of science, engineering and medicine into a single and unique reference source. NNL provides the means for scientists, engineers, medical experts and technocrats to publish original short research articles as communications/letters of important new scientific and technological findings, encompassing the fundamental and applied research in all disciplines of the physical sciences, engineering and medicine.
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