The research project intends to establish prediction bases for the properties of such hard and resistant coatings in relation with their specific electronic structure, morphology and solid state chemistry. It includes a careful investigation of the application process parameters, of the physical deposition and growth parameters, of the chemical composition, and of the structure and morphology at several resolution scales. The films are deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering from composite metal targets or by dual magnetron sputtering. The electronic properties are analysed on the basis of optical and electrical measurements as well as from photoelectron spectroscopy. The stress and hardness properties have been tested.
Optical properties are sensitive to chemical composition and surface morphology.
The investigation of the optical properties of these materials by reflectivity and ellip sometry is of significant fundamental interest. At the same time it establishes a highly sensitive basis for reproducibility and quality control. A detailed investigation of the spectral reflectivity and ellipsometry of TiNx demonstrates the high sensitivity of the optical constants to changes in chemical composition. In turn, optical measurements provide an economical means of determining the chemical composition, which is intrinsically difficult to establish especially in the case of TiNx.