Self-ion bombarded Cr films: Crystallographic orientation and oxidation behaviour

Low-energy self-ion bombardment effects on the crystallographic orientation and oxidation behaviours of arc-ion-plated pure Cr films were investigated. Microstructurally compact Cr films as observed by SEM were obtained under ion-bombardment energy of 50-250 eV. Stronger ion bombardment induced crystallographic orientation of Cr (200) and slight self-sputtering effect in the Cr films. Oxidation of the Cr films at 900 °C showed that the stronger self-ion bombardment induced formation of the more compact chromia scales with significantly lowered growth rate, indicating that self-ion bombardment can be an effective approach to improve the oxidation resistance of metal films.