Papers by Author: Jun Inoue

Abstract: Cr-Me-N-O (Me; Ni, Cu and Mg) thin films have been designed and successfully prepared by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. It was found that Me, which form the monoxide MeO, are effective for hardening the Cr(N,O) thin films.

Abstract: Chromium oxynitride (Cr(N,O)) thin film have been successfully prepared by using pulsed laser deposition. The composition of the thin film was determined to be Cr0.50N0.23O0.28 by Ruthreford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). The structural analysis was carried out by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and out-of-plane and in-plane measurements were used to clarify the axial ratio (c/a) of the Cr(N,O) phase. The lattice constants of a and c axes in the Cr(N,O) phase were found to be 0.414 and 0.419 nm, respectively. From these results, the cubic to tetragonal phase change by substitution of the oxygen atoms for nitrogen atoms was confirmed for the crystal Cr(N,O) compounds.

Abstract: Chromium magnesium oxynitride ((Cr,Mg)(N,O)) thin films have been prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method with changing the surface area ratio of Mg target (SR) from 0 to 100 %. As a result of the analysis by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), it was found that magnesium content in the total metallic elements (Cr1-x, Mgx) are controlled by changing SR from 0 to 100 % to be the x ranging from 0 to 1.0. Since the crystal structure of main phase in all thin films was found to be NaCl type, the XRD results showed that the thin films were mainly consisted of (Cr,Mg)(N,O). The hardness of (Cr,Mg)(N,O) thin films were increased almost linearly up to SR = 50 %, above which it decreases rapidly. The maximum Vickers hardness (HV) of 3600 was obtained for the thin film which was prepared by SR = 50 %, and the minimum HV of 1650 was obtained for the thin film which was prepared by SR = 100 %.