Characterization of a-CSi:H films prepared by PECVD in terms of adhesion

journal article in Web of Science

English

Mechanical properties of thin films and, in particular, adhesion are crucial engineering parameters which must be determined to allow their successful application both in the industry and science. Deposited hydrogenated amorphous carbon-silicon (a-CSi:H) films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) were tested using a nanoscratch test. The load at which adhesion failure occurs is known as the critical normal load and is used as a semi-quantitative measure of adhesion. However, results in this article suggest that the critical normal load is not an appropriate measure of adhesion for these materials, and instead, the work of adhesion should rather be considered as an alternative method. This is due to the considerable variation of Young's modulus, which affects the critical load figures, while the friction coefficient and film thickness also do not have negligible influence. Moreover, the critical load is considerably influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. Furthermore, it has been found that the critical load increased with increasing a-CSi:H film thickness, but this did not apply to the work of adhesion. On the contrary, it remained constant unless a change of film failure mode occurred. Adhesion was monitored for 5 years to determine the effect of aging and the results were found to be practically identical over this duration which indicates high film stability.

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD); a-CSi:H; Thin films; Adhesion; Nanoscratch test; Work of adhesion

PLICHTA, T.; BRÁNECKÝ, M.; ČECH, V.

15. 3. 2020

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Surface and Coatings Technology

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S025789722030044X