Behavior of Tungsten Carbide thin Films Grown at Different Substrate Temperatures

Tungsten carbide (WC) has various applications due to its good mechanical properties, such as fracture toughness, fatigue, and creep resistance. Due to its exceptional hardness (20.4 GPa), high melting temperature (>3000 K), outstanding thermal stability, and anti-oxidation qualities, it is a well-studied material and is widely employed in cutting tools, and high-wear components. It could also be a promising material for coating on plasma facing wall in Tokamak reactor. The aim of present work was to synthesize and characterize thin films of varying grain size for subsequent radiation damage studies for application in Tokamak. The films were grown on Si substrate at different substrate temperatures using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) was performed to determine the stoichiometry and thickness of the pristine films. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) and Raman spectroscopy of the films were also performed. GAXRD of the thin films revealed that there is insignificant variation in the grain size for films deposited at different substrate temperatures. Further, annealing the sample deposited at room temperature at 988 K resulted in increased grain size.