Hard and elastic epitaxial ZrB2 thin films on Al2O3(0001) substrates deposited by magnetron sputtering from a ZrB2 compound target

Abstract

Zirconium diboride (ZrB2) exhibits high hardness and high melting point, which is beneficial for applications in for e.g. metal cutting. However, there is limited data on the mechanical properties of ZrB2 films and no data on epitaxial films. In this study, ZrB2(0001) thin films, with thicknesses up to 1.2 μm, have been deposited on Al2O3(0001) substrates by direct current magnetron sputtering from a compound target. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy show that the films grow epitaxially with two domain types exhibiting different in-plane epitaxial relationships to the substrate. The out-of-plane epitaxial relationship was determined to ZrB2(0001)|Al2O3(0001) and the in-plane relationships of the two domains to ZrB2[10 0]‖Al2O3[10 0] and ZrB2[11 0]‖Al2O3[10 0]. Mechanical properties of the films, evaluated by nanoindentation, showed that all films exhibit hardness values above 45 GPa, a reduced Young's modulus in the range 350–400 GPa, and a high elastic recovery of 70% at an applied load of 9000 μN. ; Funding agencies: Swedish Research Council (VR) [621-2010-3921]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [2009-00971]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation