Surface integrity of TiC thin film produced by RF magnetron sputtering

Surface structure determines the performance of materials in service. Enhancing the surface topography of materials with a refractory ceramic coating such as Titanium carbide has gained unprecedented development of recent due to the increase in applications of these functionally graded materials. Radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering exhibits a lot of potential in depositing and growing thin film thin. One of the major advantages of RF magnetron sputtering is the ability to be used to coat both the conducting and insulating target. In this research work, RF magnetron sputtering is used to grown titanium carbide (TiC) on Ti6Al4V alloy. The process parameters varied in this study are deposition time, substrate temperature and deposition Power. Other parameters were kept constant throughout the deposition process. Atomic force microscope and Optical profilometer were used to determine the surface roughness of the thin film and scanning electron microscope is employed to analyze the morphology of the surface structure. Homogenous and dense surface morphology was noticed for sample with mid-process parameters and the surface roughness reduces with increase in process parameters.