Thin Solid Films, Vol.386, No.2, 227-232, 2001
Coating of superplastic Ti-alloy substrates with Ti and Ti-O films by magnetron DC sputtering
In order to improve the biocompatibility of superplastic Ti-alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V or Ti-4.5Al-3V-2Fe-2Mo, coating of the alloy with pure titanium and Ti-O films by magnetron DC sputtering was examined. The sputter-deposition of the pure titanium film and the Ti-O films were carried out in Ar gas and in Ar-O-2 gas mixtures, respectively. Both the pure titanium film deposited in Ar and the Ti-O films deposited in Ar-O-2 appeared to be uniform and adhesive. Under AES, the Ti/O ratio in depth direction was nearly constant in each of the films and oxygen concentration increased with increasing oxygen content of the sputter gas. Based on XRD, it was concluded that oxygen atoms dissolved into or-titanium crystals at lower oxygen contents, while suboxides such as Ti4O7 and Ti6O11 and oxides such as TiO2(anatase) were formed at higher oxygen contents. It was found that the orientation of the or-titanium phase formed in the Ti-O films changed from (002) dominant to (011) dominant with increasing oxygen content. The Vickers hardness of the films increased linearly with increasing oxygen content, and the maximum hardness reached over Hv = 1600. Furthermore, it was found that the ductility of the deposited pure titanium film was improved under such high temperatures as 800 degreesC and that its elongation reached over 160%, while the Ti-O films were still brittle under such a high temperature.