Generation and characterization of C-N-Ti deposits by low energy plasma for material coatings

In the present work it is proposed to implement a low energy device, of plasma focus type (PF-50J), to generate deposits from the material detached from the anode of the equipment, by the ionized gas and electric discharge in the axial direction. Specifically, it was studied the possibility that an equipment of dozens of joules would be able to operate with mixed gas, such as nitrogen and methane. As a result of the non-operation of the equipment from the conditions described above, it was possible to determine that this type of device does not have the capacity to work with heavier gases (originally it operates with hydrogen gas) from solid precursors. However, prior to the above, a study was carried out using a statistical tool of experimental design as a method to evaluate the most significant factors that may be related to the optimization and control of the characteristics of the deposit to be generated. Among the possible factors that could affect both positively and negatively the results of the deposit generation, are the power at which the equipment is discharged, the pressure in the one shows a better compression of the plasma, height at which the sample is exposed with respect to the anode and the number of pulses that it receives. Knowing that the factors that affect the control of the characteristics of the deposit are the height and number of pulses, the generation of titanium and carbon deposits was carried out on a nitrided silicon wafer, whose samples were subjected to morphological characterization, compositional elemental and structural scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with X-ray microanalysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). On the other hand, measurements were also made to obtain mechanical properties of the surfaces generated on the substrate in order to know its hardness and modulus of elasticity by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique