Radio frequency plasma nitriding of aluminium at higher power levels

Nitriding of aluminium 2011 using a radio frequency plasma at higher power levels (500 and 700 W) and lower substrate temperature (500 °C) resulted in higher AlN/Al2O3 ratios than obtained at 100 W and 575 °C. AlN/Al2O3 ratios derived from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis (and corroborated by heavy ion elastic recoil time of flight spectrometry) for treatments preformed at 100 (575 °C), 500 (500 °C) and 700 W (500 °C) were 1.0, 1.5 and 3.3, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that plasma nitrided surfaces obtained at higher power levels exhibited much finer nodular morphology than obtained at 100 W.