Preparation of Cr-Cu-N-O Thin Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Chromium copper oxynitride (Cr-Cu-N-O) thin films have been successfully prepared through the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The copper content in metallic elements (x) ranging from 0.0 to 0.4 were controlled by changing the surface area ratio of Cu target (SR) from 0 to 50%. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the crystal structure of main phase in all thin films to be NaCl (B1) type. The metallic copper phase exists in the thin films up to x=0.16, whereas diffraction peaks attributed to Cu were not observed in the thin film with x=0.06. From the result of SEM observation, columnar structure were observed in the thin film with x=0.0, 0.6, but the thin films up to x=0.16 shows globular structure. The Cr-Cu-N-O thin film with x=0.06 exhibited the highest Vickers hardness (HV) of 3900.