Improving the mechanical properties of titanium films by texture strengthening

This paper focused on the correlations between the texture and mechanical properties of hexagonal Ti6Al7Nb films prepared by magnetron sputtering. The texture evolution was controlled under a combination of substrate temperature and sputtering power. It was found that the substrate temperature was the key factor to dominate the texture evolution. At constant sputtering power 275 W, the films show an increasing (0002) growth from 100 to 300 °C, and then transforms into a random growth at 500 °C. According to two kinds of structure zone models, the intrinsic image of structure evolution from zone T, zone 2, to finally zone 3 was discussed. Nanoindentation measurements indicated that the texture strengthening contributes to the improvement of mechanical properties.