Coating is made by same deposit conditions. substrates are HSS Drill bit and Shim SS 300 series. On the drill bit we are getting some golden color, however on the shim we got no color it is like is not depositing at all over the shim. Someone have idea?
Dependent on your film thickness, coatings may have very different colours, especially if you are working with thicknesses
Thickness of your deposited films and the interaction with your substrates will play crucial role on the quality of your films including colour.
Following the above expert's suggestion, the colours of the coating are related to the film thickness, which have optical interference with different wavelengths dominated. Therefore the colours are different when you look at them.
Jürgen Weippert is it possible that it happens also depositing at the same time? I mean, I am depositing the 2 substrates at the same time under the same conditions, but this had never happened before.
I do not know if maybe my sputtering system is not optimized or there must be another reason to get these results.
I'll be glad if you have more information. Thank you!
Dear Estrella Natali Borja Goyeneche , after doing a search, apparently there is no reason to find color differences between HSS and SS-304 steels when coated with TiN, both give a golden color by PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition).
However, what Jürgen Weippert suggest is the only reasonable reason to explain the observed differences. I wonder if you degreased the two pieces before the treatment, may be some residue (grease, rust... ) on the surface of the shim could be the explanation. Most authors recommend a previous Argon bombardement to remove these residual layer on the surface to get a fresh steel layer where the adhesion of TiN can happen easily and stronger.
About the golden color of TiN, I also thought it was an interference color and therefore that it depends on the thin film coating thickness, but it wasn´t, actually it is a plasmonic color such as those of gold or copper, and it can be explained in terms of the simple Drude model. It happens that the plasma frequency of TiN is close to that of gold, hence its golden color. Changing the stoichiometry of the TiNx during the PVD process by changing the flow of N2 can change the final color of the thin film. Also the inclussion of O2 produces a range of colors.
Hope it helps.
If you say you sputtered under the same conditions, were both pieces at the same position relative to the sputtering source? Target-substrate distances can have a huge impact on the growth mode and rate.
I agree with Jurgen. If you are using magnetron sputtering the relative position will have significant impact on the final thickness especially if your magnetron positioned vertically above some point at small distanse away from substrate plate.
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