h Ghorbani - Department of Materials Eng., Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
a Abdollah-zadeh - Department of Materials Eng., Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
a Poladi - Faculty of Materials Science and Eng., Semnan University, Semnan, Iran
m Hajian - Department of Materials Science and Eng., Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

This paper is an attempt to synthesize nanostructured tantalum films on medical grade AISI 316L stainless steel (SS) using pulsed DC plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD). The impact of duty cycle (17-33%) and total pressure (3-10 torr) were studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD), nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), proton induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and Rockwell indentation methods. The optimizeddeposition conditions for making the best film characteristics in terms of deposition rate, purity and maximum α-phase was recognized. Also, the results showed that using a near stoichiometric TaNinterlayer in this technique improves the film adhesion strength and considerably increases Ta film purity. The NRA analysis results indicated that the pulsed DC-PACVD is capable of producing Ta films with negligible amount of residual hydrogen which makes films needless to post bake treatment

Tantalum,Tantalum Nitride,AISI 316L Stainless Steel,Pulsed DC- Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor,Deposition,Characterization