Effects of Heat-treatment on Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Resistance of NbN Films

The NbN and Nb films are prepared by the technique of radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and heat-treated at 300 °C and 400 °C respectively in the present work. The influences of heat-treatment on the morphology, chemical composition, structure, nanomechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the films are studied. Results show that the particles in the films prepared by the above method are all in nano-size. The polygon shaped particles in the Nb films are very thin and small, while the particles in the NbN films prepared under the same condition are pebble-like, larger, and more compact. The nanomechanical properties and corrosion resistance of both the films are improved apparently after the heat-treatment. The corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of NbN film are always better than those of Nb film. The mechanism about the heat-treatment on the property considering the structural evolution is also discussed in this paper.