Influence of Volt-Ampere Characteristics of Gas Discharge on Structure and Properties of TiN Films

The low ionization rate of magnetron sputtering ion plating and the micron-size droplet splash of multi-arc ion plating restrict the development of ion plating technique for a long time. According to the Joule heating effect that the electrons going through a defect area with a relatively higher resistance value increase the temperature of the defect area, and the thermionic emission from the metal surface with a high temperature, a new type of micro-arc ion plating technology based on the target material escaping from the target by the ion collisions and thermal emission was established in the present paper. The temperature of target surface rose rapidly by the bombardment of Ar+ and Joule heating effect, and the kinetic energy of the target electrons and atoms increased to overcome surface work function to escape from the target surface. The increasing of atoms and electrons in the plasma improved the collision ionization rate of the target atoms, and obvious arc did not appear on the target surface which avoided the melt splashing of target material; therefore the target atoms of the micro-arc ion plating could obtain a high ionization rate and a high density. The results show that the TiN film deposited by micro-arc ion plating has dense microstructure, fine surface quality, high hardness, well film adhesion and strong corrosion resistance.