Development of Near Gold-Colored TiZrN Nano Thin Films by Arc Ion Plating

A gold plating technique with wet chemical solution is widely used to make different metallic colors for various industrial applications. However, it results in environmental pollution due to the generation of contaminated water, and it is also an expensive process. As an alternative approach, it is often desirable to use the Physical Vapor Deposition coating method that does not generate such pollution, and to use cheaper material to imitate gold colors. In this letter, target materials consisting of Ti-Zr alloy are employed to realize tens of nanometers thickness metallic thin film that can produce a metallic color that is close to that of natural gold. TiZrN thin films with a thickness ranging (2,000 to 4,000) nm are formed on a substrate using Arc Ion Plating. The results showed that the thin films exhibited an adhesion force of 50 N or more and a hardness of 1,500 Hv or more under a -100 V bias condition, and various gold colors could be realized by changing the ratio of Ti and Zr element of the alloy target.