Reactive chemical vapor deposition of Ti3SiC2 with and without pressure pulses: Effect on the ternary carbide texture

• Published in: Thin solid films Vol. 518; no. 18; pp. 5071 - 5077
• Main Authors: JACQUES, S, FAKIH, H, VIALA, J.-C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier 01-07-2010
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Coatings; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Deposition; Diffusion; interface formation; Exact sciences and technology; Material chemistry; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Nucleation; Physics; Pressure pulses; Reactors; Silicon carbide; Solid surfaces and solid-solid interfaces; Surface layer; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Texture; Theory and models of film growth; Thick coatings; Pressure effects; Nucleation; Multilayer coating; Multilayer; Gas solid reaction; Pressure-pulsed CVD; Solid-gas reaction; SiC; Texture; Titanium carbide; Nucleation step; CVD; Multilayers; Silicon carbide; Solid state diffusion; Surface reactions; Ti; Low pressure; Growth mechanism; Reactive CVD; Diffusion; Gallium selenides; Heterogeneous reaction; Solid–gas reaction; Ti3SiC2
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2010.02.059

Ti3SiC2 layers were grown by reactive chemical vapor deposition (RCVD) of a H2/TiCl4 gaseous mixture on previously deposited SiC layers. A comparison was made between classical RCVD in which the gases continuously flow at a constant low pressure during several minutes in the reactor and pressure-pulsed RCVD (P-RCVD) in which the reactor is (periodically) (re)filled with the H2/TiCl4 gas and (re)emptied every few seconds. Long duration single treatments resulted in similar thick multi-phased coatings growing by solid state diffusion with both RCVD and P-RCVD methods. Conversely, in relation with the steps of nucleation and growth by surface reaction, the repetition of short duration SiC deposition/RCVD sequences with or without pressure pulses gave rise to Ti3SiC2 coatings with different textures.