Physical and chemical characterization of Ag-doped Ti coatings produced by magnetron sputtering of modular targets

• Modular targets were used to deposit Ti(Ag) films.
• Ag-content is adjustable by bias voltage, sputtering power and substrate temperature.
• Coating parameters significantly change film morphology and roughness.
• A critical parameter for Ag release is the fraction of silver on the film surface.

Silver-doped Ti films were produced using a single magnetron sputtering source equipped with a titanium target containing implemented silver modules under variation of bias voltage and substrate temperature. The Ti(Ag) films were characterized regarding their morphology, contact angle, phase composition, silver content and distribution as well as the elution of Ag+ ions into cell media.SEM and AFM pictures showed that substrate heating during film deposition supported the formation of even and dense surface layers with small roughness values, an effect that could even be enforced, when a substrate bias voltage was applied instead. The deposition of both Ti and Ag was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. ICP-MS and EDX showed a clear correlation between the applied sputtering parameters and the silver content of the coatings. Surface-sensitive XPS measurements revealed that higher substrate temperatures led to an accumulation of Ag in the near-surface region, while the application of a bias voltage had the opposite effect. Additional elution measurements using ICP-MS showed that the release kinetics depended on the amount of silver located at the film surface and hence could be tailored by variation of the sputter parameters.