Effect of substrate bias and deposition temperature on the properties of thick sputtered chromium deposits

Several thick dc-sputtered pure-chromium deposits were examined for variations in hardness, crystallographic orientation, and microstructure as a function of substrate bias and deposition temperature. Deposit hardness increased to a maximum of approximately 700 DPH at −50 V substrate bias and then decreased for higher bias. Hardness also decreased with increasing deposition temperature. Bias had no effect on orientation but increasing temperature favored random rather than highly textured orientation. Microstructure changes corresponding to hardness changes were observed. Some tensile ductility was noted in a 400 °C deposit sputtered using a −50 bias.