The chromium nitride thin films have became more and more popular in the last years because of their very good physical, chemical and mechanical properties. The present study relates to thermal stability of hard thin films of chromium nitride CrN, carried out physical vapour deposition. We studied the influence of the annealing temperature on the morphology of CrN films, deposited on silicon substrate using magnetron sputtering. The characterizations are examined using scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Annealing treatments in N_2 at 600-1000C for 1 h are performed on CrN coating samples for 530 nm thickness. At low temperature, the results show a thermal stability of these coatings. The Cr_2O_3 phase is completely replaced by the CrN phase at temperature above 1000°C. The results given by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction are compared.
Spectra of possible phonon states, as well as thermodynamic characteristics of nanocrystals (ultrathin film and quantum wire) of simple cubic crystalline structure are analyzed in this paper, using the method of two-time dependent Green functions. From energy spectra and internal energy of the system the thermal capacitance of these structures in low temperature region is found. The temperature behavior of specific heat is compared to that of corresponding bulk structure. It is shown that at extremely low temperatures thermal capacitance of quantum wire is considerably lower than the thermal capacitance of film as well as the bulk sample. Consequences of this fact are discussed in detail and its influence to thermodynamic properties of materials is estimated.
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