Structural, electrical and mechanical characterization of magnetron-sputtered V–Ge–C thin films

✍ Scribed by O. Wilhelmsson; P. Eklund; H. Högberg; L. Hultman; U. Jansson

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 793 KB
• Volume: 56
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1359-6454
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2008.01.036

✦ Synopsis

V 2 GeC MAX-phase thin films were deposited by DC magnetron sputter epitaxy in the temperature range 450-850 °C. The MAX-phase nucleates directly on (0 0 0 l)-oriented sapphire-wafer substrates without the need for a seed layer. The films contain, however, a small fraction of binary vanadium carbide (VC x ) inclusions. X-ray diffraction analysis furthermore shows that these inclusions partly consist of the ordered superstructure V 8 C 7 . The amount of Ge in the films decreases at higher temperatures, which can be attributed to Ge evaporation. At temperatures below 450 °C the films consist of polycrystalline Ge and an X-ray amorphous carbide phase attributed to VC x or V 2 C. No MAX-phase was observed in this temperature region. The electrical and mechanical properties of the films were characterized.