Formation of Face Centered Cubic Titanium Thin Films on MgO(111) Single Crystal Substrate

Abstract

High strength, low density, and excellent corrosion resistance are the main properties that make titanium attractive for a variety of applications. The phase structures and phase transitions of titanium, which are of tremendous scientific and technological interest, have attracted a great deal of attention for many years. In addition to hexagonal close packed α-Ti, high temperature phase β-Ti with body-centered cubic structure and ω-Ti with the hexagonal structure of high-pressure phase, the face-centered cubic structure, which is not in the P-T diagram of titanium, is observed in ultrathin films. In the present paper, the Ti films prepared by magnetron sputtering on MgO(111) single crystal substrate were investigated by means of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM). The results showed that the Ti films grow epitaxial with a face centered cubic (fcc) structure even the thickness is up to about 50nm. With the thickness increases, the Ti films transformed to hexagonal close packed (hcp) structure and showed an epitaxial growth along (002)hcp-Ti direction. The results show that the onset thickness of fcc-hcp structure transformation is 50-100nm. The temperature and power of sputter affect the formation of fcc-Ti.