This study is one part of a series of efforts to optimize the microstructure and tribological properties of the Ti–Si–C–N coatings for a wide range of industrial applications. In this study, Ti–6Al–4V samples were coated with thick Ti–Si–C–N coatings (25–35 μm) using a plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering (PEMS) process, in which Ti was sputtered from two magnetrons at fixed power ... Read more

Plasma-immersion ion implantation (PIII) is a potent method to obtain hard and wear-resistant surface on Ti by nitrogen implantation. This presentation is one part of a sequence of experiments to optimize the microstructure and physical properties of TiN through adapting the plasma-processing parameters. In this work, nitrogen ions were implanted into samples of pure Ti at different nitrogen pulse frequency ... Read more

Nitrided surfaces and composition gradients in thin films exhibit interesting mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. Therefore, amorphous hydrogen-free silicon (a-Si) thin films were deposited by electron beam evaporation and subsequently nitrided by an inductively coupled rf plasma. The effects of successive plasma-processing cyclic time on structural and optical properties as well as electrical resistivity were examined by different characterization techniques. ... Read more

Titanium nitrides have good mechanical, biomedical and optical properties, therefore they are used to harden and protect cutting and sliding surfaces and as a non-toxic exterior for bio-medical applications. Nitrogen plasma immersion implantation (PIII), in which the diffusion of nitrogen from low pressure r.f. plasma is combined with the implantation of nitrogen ions at energies up to 30 kV, is ... Read more

Silicon thin films are currently used in different technological areas such as photovoltaic cells [1, 2], thin-film transistors [3], microelectromechanical systems [4], and Li-ion rechargeable batteries [5]. On the other hand, silicon dielectrics are important materials for both microelectronics and integrated optics. In particular, silicon dielectrics have been considered as an appropriate material for fabricating optical waveguides in broadband communications ... Read more

An anticorrosive and wear-resistant superficial top layer was distinctly produced in AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel by rf plasma carbonitriding. Details about the elemental distribution profiles and the microstructure of the carbonitrided samples, as a function of treatment temperature, were characterized by glow discharge optical spectroscopy (GDOS), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and optical microscopy (OM). The tribological behavior was ... Read more

Carbonitriding of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel was performed at a plasma-processing power of 450 W using inductively coupled radio frequency (rf) plasma in a gas mixture of 50% N2 and 50% C2H2. The rate of carbonitriding, microhardness, phase structure of the compound layer, surface microstructure and cross-section morphology were studied before and after the annealing process. At the annealing ... Read more

AISI-304 austenitic stainless steel has been nitrocarburized in N2 and C2H2 ambient using high-voltage plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) technology. The use of different PIII treatment times revealed important hints with respect to the microstructural, mechanical and corrosion properties of the nitrocarburized layer. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) shows the presence of nitride (_γ_N and CrN) and carbide (_γ_C and ... Read more

Surface of 304 AISI austenitic stainless steel has been modified using duplex treatment technique of nitriding and carbonitriding. A thick modified nitrided layer, of approximately 20 µm, has been achieved when rf inductively coupled plasma was adjusted at 450 W for processing time of only 10 min. After performing the nitrided layer, the nitrided samples were carbonitrided using the same ... Read more

In this work, duplex treatment has been carried out using radio frequency (rf) plasma nitriding process and direct current (dc) magnetron sputtering of titanium. Nitriding of AISI 304 stainless steel, using rf plasma technique, created a thick modified layer of approximately 20 μm for short plasma processing time of 10 min. After nitriding process, a thin titanium nitride film has ... Read more