The adhesion strength and mechanical properties of SiC films deposited on SiAlON buffer layer by magnetron sputtering

Herein, SiC films were prepared by DC pulse magnetron sputtering on ceramic substrates using SiAlON as buffer layer. The influence of SiAlON buffer layer thickness on the structural, morphological, and mechanical properties of the SiC/SiAlON bilayers was discussed. The result show that SiAlON buffer layer can effectively improve the adhesion strength of SiC films, while the hardness of the SiC/SiAlON bilayers isn't suppressed a lot. With increase in the buffer layer thickness, the film's adhesion strength gradually increases from 66 N to 83 N, which is much higher than 36 N of single SiC layer. Meanwhile, all the SiC/SiAlON films maintain great hardness between 20 GPa and 25 GPa.