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Grain growth in nanocomposite Ti–B–N films during deposition: The effect of amorphous phase precipitation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2006

Z-J. Liu ,
Y.H. Lu  and
Y.G. Shen
Z-J. Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Y.H. Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Y.G. Shen*
Affiliation:
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: meshen@cityu.edu.hk
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Abstract

Experimental investigations by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction show that during sputter-deposition of Ti–B–N films amorphous materials, e.g., TiB2 and BN, are found to precipitate at the grain boundaries, resulting in a decrease in grain size when the boron concentration or the amount of amorphous phase increases. To understand these experimental observations, we have used Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effect of the amorphous phase precipitation on grain growth during film deposition. Our simulations demonstrate that the precipitation of amorphous phase at the grain boundaries can lower the grain growth exponent and thus leads to a low grain growth rate, particularly in the case of large amounts of amorphous phase. As a result, an exponential decay in grain size with the amount of amorphous phase can be observed in our simulations, which is in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords

Grain sizeSputteringThin film
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 82 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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