Increase of the wear resistance of carbide layers deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition in addition with an auxiliary laser

TL;DR

This study enhances the wear resistance of carbide thin films by using pulsed laser deposition combined with an auxiliary laser, leading to improved film properties for potential industrial applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel laser-assisted technique to modify and improve the wear resistance of carbide coatings deposited by pulsed laser deposition.

Findings

Enhanced wear resistance observed in films with auxiliary laser treatment

Improved film uniformity and adhesion confirmed by SEM and RBS

Structural modifications detected via XRD and Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Carbides stand out because of their high hardness and wear-resistance. Thus these materials are often discussed for coatings of machine tools etc. Within this work Boron Carbide (B4C) and Carbide (C) thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition technique. In order to improve the wear-resistance of the deposited films, we introduced a new working technique including the application of a second excimer laser in a special working mode. Thereby one laser was used to ablate the carbide material from a target and to deposit the material on the substrate. The light of the second laser was directed directly onto the substrate in order to modify the ablated material. We report on details for film deposition and film properties determined by Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, Rutherford Backscattering, Raman Spectroscopy and tribological experiments.