Pulsed rf magnetron sputtered alumina thin films

Reddy, I Neelakanta and Reddy, V Rajagopal and Sridhara, N and Rao, V Sasidhara and Bhattacharya, Manjima and Bandyopadhyay, Payel and Basavaraja, S and Mukhopadhyay, Anoop Kumar and Sharma, Anand Kumar and Dey, Arjun (2014) Pulsed rf magnetron sputtered alumina thin films. In: CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL, 40 (7, A). pp. 9571-9582.

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Abstract

Alumina thin films were deposited on titanium (Ti) and fused quartz by both direct and reactive pulsed rf magnetron sputtering techniques. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy were utilized to study the phases and surface morphology of the films. The as-deposited alumina thin films were amorphous. However, after annealing at 500 degrees C in vacuum, the crystalline peaks corresponding to the Theta (0), Delta (8) and Chi ()) alumina phases were obtained. The optical transmittance and reflectance as well as IR emittanc,e data were also evaluated for the thin films. The transmittance, e.g., (similar to 90%) of the bare quartz substrate was not changed even when the alumina thin films were deposited for an hour. However, further increase in deposition time (e.g., 7 h) of the alumina thin films showed only a marginal decrease (e.g., similar to 5%) in average transmittance of the bare quartz substrate. The direct and indirect optical band gaps and extinction coefficient of the alumina films were estimated from the transmittance spectra. The IR emittance of the Ti substrate (e.g., similar to 16%) was almost constant after depositing alumina thin films for an hour. Further increase in deposition time showed only a marginal increase (e.g., similar to 9%) in IR emittance value. Therefore, it is proposed that the alumina films developed in the present work can act as a protective cover for the Ti substrate while retaining the thermo-optical properties of the same. The nanohardness and Young's modulus of the alumina thin films were evaluated by the novel nanoindentation technique. The nanohardness was measured as similar to 6 GPa. Further, Young's modulus was evaluated as similar to 116 GPa. The magnitudes of the nanomechanical properties of the thin films were a little smaller than those reported in the literature. This was linked to the lack of crystalline phases in the as-deposited alumina thin films. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
Publisher:	ELSEVIER SCI LTD
Additional Information:	copyright for this article belongs to ELSEVIER SCI LTD, THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, OXON, ENGLAND
Keywords:	Thin films; Alumina; Sputtering; Thermo-optical properties; Nanomechanical properties
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Electrical Communication Engineering
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2014 08:43
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2014 08:43
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/49403

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