Characterization and temperature controlling property of TiAlN coatings deposited by reactive magnetron co-sputtering

Titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN) ternary coating is a potential material which is expected to be applied on satellite for thermal controlling. In order to investigate thermal controlling property, TiAlN coatings were deposited on Si wafers with different N2 and Ar flux ratio by reactive magnetron co-sputtering. The structure, morphology, chemical composition and optical reflectance are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), atom force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and spectrophotometer, respectively. The orientation of the coatings depends on the N2/Ar flux ratio. The coatings deposited with N2/Ar ratio of 10, 30 and 60% show the cubic-TiN [2 2 0] preferred orientation and the coating deposited with N2/Ar ratio of 100% exhibits the phase of hexagonal-AlN and cubic-TiN. The surface of the coatings becomes more compact and smoother with the N2/Ar ratios increase. XPS spectrum indicates that the oxides (TiO2 and Al2O3), oxynitride (TiNxOy) and nitrides (TiN and AlNx) appear at the surface of the coatings. Ignoring internal power, the optimum equilibrium temperature of TiAlN coatings is 18 °C and the equilibrium temperature after heat-treated has slight change, which provides the prospective application on thermal controlling.