9-13 July 2012
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=11&confId=14"><font color=#ff0000>SAIP2012 PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE</font></a>

Growth and characterization of RF Magnetron Sputtered NbN and ZrN thin films

11 Jul 2012, 17:30
20m
Oral Presentation Track A - Division for Condensed Matter Physics and Materials DCMPM2

Speaker

Mr Jonah Kuria (School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand)

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)

Thin hard films have been used widely as protective coatings under harsh environments. In this work, the effect of sputter power and substrate bias on the microstructure and subsequently on the elastic constants of transition metal nitride thin films is investigated. NbN and ZrN thin films have been deposited on etched (100) Si substrate at sputter powers ranging from 75W to 200W using RF magnetron sputtering at various substrate bias. The microstructure of the films have been determined using a combination of x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and will be correlated to the deposition conditions. For surface Brillouin measurements the surface topography of these thin films will be examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A time of flight spectrometer for heavy ion detection (HI-ERD) thin film analysis was used to measure the films’ thickness and stoichiometry for the various deposition conditions. Theoretical modelling on the basis of the surface Green’s functions has been used to predict and compare surface Brillouin spectra with the experimental spectra for select thin films.

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

PhD

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

J.D. Comins Email: darrell.comins@wits.ac.za
University of the Witwatersrand

Apply to be<br> consider for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

No

Primary author

Mr Jonah Kuria (School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand)

Presentation Materials

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