Kinetics of Ni:C thin film composition formation at different temperatures and contents of nickel

Experimentally observed surface segregation of nickel during Ni:C thin films growth is analyzed by kinetic model. The model is built considering experimental results where microstructure evolution as a function of the substrate temperature and metal content of C:Ni nanocomposite films grown by pulsed filtered cathodic arc deposition is investigated. The kinetic model includes processes of adsorption, chemical diffusion, surface segregation. Chemical diffusion and surface segregation are allowed in a layer near the surface. The experimental depth profile curves taken from literature were fitted by using proposed model. Thereby the values of depth dependent surface segregation and chemical diffusion coefficients are determined in the system. It is shown by modeling that with the increase of temperature the process of nickel surface segregation becomes dominant.