Effect of tungsten sputtering current on structural and morphological properties of WC thin films

Abstract

Nanostructured tungsten carbide (WC) thin films were deposited on Si wafer by DC magnetron co- sputtering using tungsten and graphite targets. The effect of tungsten sputtering current on the structural and morphology of thin film was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman scattering spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), respectively. The XRD results showed that all film formed nanocrystalline WC phase with preferred orientation along (100) plane. The crystallize size of WC was increase with increasing the tungsten sputtering current. In additional, WC1-x phase were observed when increasing the tungsten sputtering from 0.40 to 0.60 A.