TY - GEN
T1 - Investigation of plasma enhanced chemically vapor deposited tantalum on high strength steels
AU - Suh, Y.
AU - Chen, W.
AU - Maeng, S.
AU - Levy, R.
AU - Thridandam, H.
AU - Cuthill, K.
AU - Gaffhey, T.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - As a chromium replacement candidate for coating protection of high strength steels, tantalum is environmentally friendly and exhibits excellent physical and chemical properties such as a high melting point, good ductility, and excellent corrosion resistance in aggressive environments. This work currently investigates the use of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to produce high quality Ta coatings on high strength steel substrates. This deposition process promises to provide good throughput, low cost, conformal step coverage, and coatings with desirable properties and performance. In this study, tantalum chloride (TaCl5) and hydrogen (H2) have been selected as the preferred precursor and the reactant gas for the reduction reaction and a PECVD reactor with 13.56 MHz RF power source was used to carry out the coating experiments. The interrelationships governing the growth kinetics, compositions, and coating properties have been established as a function of deposition temperature, total pressure, RF input power and reactant concentration. The PECVD Ta coatings have also been characterized with respect to their chemical, structural, and morphological properties. Results indicate that the coatings consist essentially of pure tantalum with trace amounts of oxygen, carbon, and chlorine. The SEM results revealed that the coatings exhibit perfectly conformal coverage while the XRR and XRD results indicated that the coatings are dense and exhibit mostly the β-Ta phase.
AB - As a chromium replacement candidate for coating protection of high strength steels, tantalum is environmentally friendly and exhibits excellent physical and chemical properties such as a high melting point, good ductility, and excellent corrosion resistance in aggressive environments. This work currently investigates the use of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to produce high quality Ta coatings on high strength steel substrates. This deposition process promises to provide good throughput, low cost, conformal step coverage, and coatings with desirable properties and performance. In this study, tantalum chloride (TaCl5) and hydrogen (H2) have been selected as the preferred precursor and the reactant gas for the reduction reaction and a PECVD reactor with 13.56 MHz RF power source was used to carry out the coating experiments. The interrelationships governing the growth kinetics, compositions, and coating properties have been established as a function of deposition temperature, total pressure, RF input power and reactant concentration. The PECVD Ta coatings have also been characterized with respect to their chemical, structural, and morphological properties. Results indicate that the coatings consist essentially of pure tantalum with trace amounts of oxygen, carbon, and chlorine. The SEM results revealed that the coatings exhibit perfectly conformal coverage while the XRR and XRD results indicated that the coatings are dense and exhibit mostly the β-Ta phase.
KW - Plasma-enhanced CVD
KW - Tantalum
KW - Tantalum chloride
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:58349098587
SN - 9781605601335
T3 - Materials Science and Technology Conference and Exhibition, MS and T'07 - "Exploring Structure, Processing, and Applications Across Multiple Materials Systems"
SP - 3424
EP - 3433
BT - Materials Science and Technology Conference and Exhibition, MS and T'07 - "Exploring Structure, Processing, and Applications Across Multiple Materials Systems"
PB - Materials Science and Technology
T2 - Materials Science and Technology Conference and Exhibition, MS and T'07 - "Exploring Structure, Processing, and Applications Across Multiple Materials Systems"
Y2 - 16 September 2007 through 20 September 2007
ER -