PhD. Topics

Reactive sputtering of the compositionally complex ceramic coatings

Advanced Materials

2024

doc. RNDr. František Lofaj, DrSc.

Contact:

Prírodovedecká fakulta UPJŠ

The development of magnetron sputtering is oriented toward technologies with high ionization degree of the sputtered material which provides better control of the deposition process as well as better coating properties. The most famous ionized PVD is the High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) and the relatively new technology High Target Utilization Sputtering (HiTUS) also belongs among these methods. High degree of ionization is achieved in the case of HiPIMS by very short duty cycle impulses with extremely high power density whereas in HiTUS by the power at an independent plasma source. The work should focus on the optimization of the deposition parameters of hard multicomponent carbide, boride and nitride coatings from the viewpoint of the control of their elastic and plastic properties by means of determination of dependencies among the deposition parameters, plasma characteristics, coating structures and their mechanical and tribological properties. The work will be performed on the iPVD systems Cryofox Discovery (Polyteknik, Denmark) and HiTUS C500 (PQL, UK) in combination with the electron microscopy observations (SEM, TEM) and measurements of mechanical properties.

Aim: Investigation of the influence of the deposition parameters of hard multicomponent carbide, boride and nitride coatings on their mechanical and tribological properties.

Keywords: : PVD, HiPIMS, HiTUS, multicomponent ceramic coatings, mechanical properties, tribological properties