Effect of Argon Gas Flow Rate on the Optical and Mechanical Properties of Sputtered Tungsten Thin Film Coatings

Tungsten thin film coatings were deposited on SS304 substrates by DC magnetron sputtering process. Optical and mechanical properties changes have been studied as a function of varying argon gas flow rate during magnetron sputtering process. The effect of argon flow rate on depositionrate, mechanical and optical properties of the tungsten films prepared at Different power rate was investigated by surface profilometer, nanoindenter, FESEM and UV Vis NIR spectrometer. With increasing argon gas flow rate increases deposition rate and hence higher IR reflectance in IR region and at lower argon gas flow rate the absorptance is higher. The optimized results allows us to select the deposition condition for solar absorptance and thermal emittance for solar thermal applications. The XRD analysis shows that the deposited tungsten thin film coatings were in polycrystalline in nature and surface roughness increases with increase in argon gas flow rate. Nanoindentation test result yields that hardness of DC magnetronsputtered tungsten thin film increases with argon gas flow rate from 200sccm to 500sccm. (paper)