Structural and morphological characterization WCxNy thin films grown by pulsed vacuum arc discharge in an argon–nitrogen atmosphere

Abstract Ternary WCN thin films were deposited on 304 stainless steel substrates by using the cathodic repetitive pulsed vacuum arc technique. Coatings were grown employing a WC (6N) target with nitrogen as gas of work and exploring the effect of the number of pulses on the plane orientations and phase transition by means of X ray diffraction (XRD). Results show different phases formation as WC, WCO, WC x N y and W. The number of pulses had strong influence not only on the phase transformation but also on the polycrystallinity. Values of x around 0.93 were obtained by using the Vegard's law, corroborating results extracting from XRD analysis as diffraction angles and lattice parameters that are closer to WC. Moreover, XRD analysis allowed confirming the formation of a composite material, due to the existence of different phases and plane orientations. Morphological analysis as grain size and thickness were calculated by using atomic force microscopy (AFM), observing an increase of these parameters as a function of the number of pulses.