Plasma enhanced magnetron sputter deposition of Ti–Si–C–N based nanocomposite coatings

This paper reviews a Plasma Enhanced Magnetron Sputtering (PEMS) technology and a series of studies of Ti– Si–C–N nanocomposite coatings deposited using this technique. The PEMS technology is discussed briefly and compared with conventional magnetron sputter deposition. In PEMS, an electron source is used to generate plasma in addition to the magnetron plasma for both ion cleaning of the surfaces before deposition and enhanced ion bombardment...