Effects of Power on Microstructure and Hardness of Sputtered TiB2 Films

The TiB2 films were prepared on AISI 316L substrate by magnetron sputtering with various powers to investigate the influence of sputtering power on the microstructure and hardness of films. The crystalline structures and cross-sectional morphology of TiB2 films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), respectively. The hardness was measured by nano-indentation. XRD patterns showed that the preferred orientation of TiB2 films transferred from (100) to (001) with the increase of power. It can be observed that each film processed homogeneous by the cross-sectional images. The hardness of films varied from 21 to 32 GPa depending on the value of power. The enhancement of hardness may be attributed to the effect of the residual stress state and the microstructure of films. Furthermore, the effects of power on hardness of TiB2 films were discussed in details.