Deposition of TiC Thin Films Using Dense Plasma Focus Device R.S.Rawat1, P.Lee2, T.White3 and S.Lee2

Thin films of titanium carbide (TiC) are deposited on stainless steel-304 substrates using dense plasma focus device. Thin films of TiC are deposited using different numbers of focus shots, like 10, 20 and 30. XRD patterns in all three cases are found to have diffraction peaks for (111), (200), (220) and (311) TiC crystalline planes. The XRD pattern for the 20 focus shots deposition matches well, in terms of not only positions but also relative intensities of diffraction peaks, with the Standard TiC pattern indicating the formation of good quality TiC film. Diffraction peaks related to stainless steel-304 substrate are also seen on XRD patterns. Scanning electron micrographs show increasing clustering of TiC grains with the increase in number of focus deposition shots. The EDX spectra show the presence of expected constituent elements. These results infer the first ever deposition of TiC thin films using dense plasma focus device. 1