Growth and characterisation of NiAl and N-doped NiAl films deposited by closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering ion plating using elemental ni and Al targets.

Closed Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering Ion Plating (CFUBMSIP) has been used to deposit undoped and nitrogen doped NiAI thin films onto glass and stainless steel 316 substrates. These films have potential applications in tribological, electronic media and thermal barrier coatings. The surface characteristics, composition, mechanical and structural properties have been investigated using stylus profilometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDAX), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation. The average thickness of the films was approximately 1 microm. The X-ray diffraction spectra revealed the presence of the beta NiAl phase. The EDAX results revealed that all of the undoped and nitrogen doped NiAl thin films exhibited the near equiatomic NiAl composition with the best results being achieved using 300 Watts DC power for Ni and 400 Watts DC power for Al targets respectively. AFM results of both types of films deposited on glass samples exhibited a surface roughness of less than 100 nm. The nanoindenter results for coatings on glass substrates displayed hardness and elastic modulus of 7.7 GPa and 100 GPa respectively. The hardest coatings obtained were obtained at 10% of nitrogen.