Assessment of titanium metallization thin film deposited on alumina substrate: Microstructure and nano-indentation
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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Reactive Vapor Deposition of Conjugated Polymer Films on Arbitrary Substrates
Published on: January 17, 2018
Xuegang Xing1, Hefeng Wang2, Gesheng Xiao1
1Institute of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China.
Abstract:
Surface titanium (Ti) metallization was conducted on alumina (Al2O3) through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method derived from non-contact pack cementation. The effects of different deposition temperature (1000 °C, 1050 °C, and 1100 °C) were examined in this scenario. The morphology, phase composition, and interfacial defects of the resulting films were systematically investigated through scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction. The nanomechanical characterization of the proposed thin films was evaluated by conducting nano-indentation tests at different depths. The results revealed that uniform Ti films were coated on the Al2O3 substrate. During coating, the atoms on the matrix surface were driven to form different structure due to different deposition temperature, leading to disparate morphologies of the surface and the interface, which consequently influenced the binding force between the film and the substrate. Moreover, the nanomechanical properties were found to be related to the internal and interface structure. Decreased modulus and hardness were obtained for metallization films treated at 1050 °C, and plastic deformation was the main deformation pattern.
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