Abstract

MILLAN-FLORES, H. et al. Aluminium surface modification by nitrogen-argon mixture PIII. Superf. vacío [online]. 2009, vol.22, n.2, pp.17-22. ISSN 1665-3521.

Pure nitrogen, 30% argon/70% nitrogen, 50% argon/50% nitrogen, 70% argon/30% nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) processes onto aluminium samples has been performed at 2 to 6 kV negative bias and 50 to 150 us pulse widths, the sample temperature being established at 400 °C. Incident fluencies of ~10¹⁸ atoms/cm² were used to investigate the diffusion behaviour and AlN phase formation in the samples. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the formation of the cubic phase of AlN with both pure nitrogen and all the mixtures whereas the hexagonal phase becomes apparent only in the 50% mixture and in pure nitrogen. The characteristic peak of AlN has also been determined by Raman spectroscopy. The microhardness was found to be always maximal with the 50% nitrogen 50% argon mixture.

Keywords : plasma immersion ion implantation; X-ray diffraction; hardness; scanning electron microscopy; surface modification.