Effects of Substrate Temperature and Film Thickness on Structure and Tribological Properties of Ag Films Prepared by Ion Plating

Ag films with various thicknesses were deposited on 45 steel and stainless steel substrates at low temperatures.The crystal structure,morphology and tribological properties of Ag films deposited at low temperature were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD),scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ball-on-disk vacuum tribometer,respectively.The preferred orientation degree of Ag films show significant change with prologing deposittion time and decreasing substrate temperature.The upper layer of Ag films deposited at -147 ℃ for 6 minutes shows (200) preferred orientation,while the sub-layer showed (111) preferred orientation.Ag films deposited at low temperature showed better anti-wear ability at higher load.