Carbon Doped Austenitic Stainless Steel Coatings Obtained by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

The paper presents the results of investigations of carbon doped austenitic stainless steel coatings (carbon S-phase) obtained by the reactive magnetron sputtering in the reactive atmosphere composed of argon and methane as a carbon source. Stainless steel targets were sputtered under different conditions. During the experiments the argon to methane proportion varied within a range 11/2-7/6. The other parameters such as temperature, pressure, sputtering power, etc. were kept constant. The phase composition was determined using the X-ray diffraction. Electron probe microanalysis (energy dispersive spectroscopy and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy) and glow discharge optical emission spectrometry techniques were used to study element composition of the coatings. Microstructure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. It was found that varying the methane volume in the reactive atmosphere, it is possible to control the lattice parameter of the carbon S-phase.