Studies of aluminium coatings deposited by vacuum evaporation and magnetron sputtering

The paper presents the results of investigations of the microstructures and properties of the aluminium coatings deposited by vacuum evaporation and magnetron sputtering. These coatings generally have a very refined microstructure with elongated nano-grains. However, the surface topography of the aluminium coating deposited by vacuum evaporation is more developed, its microstructure is less homogeneous and more porous. The residual tensile stresses in the aluminium coating deposited by magnetron sputtering are close to 130 MPa, and the texture is relatively pronounced. Vacuum evaporation does not induce residual stresses in the coatings and the texture is very weak. The results obtained indicate that the aluminium coatings produced by magnetron sputtering are more suitable for the diffusive Ti-Al intermetallic layers.