In-situ and ex-situ examination of the early stages of chemical vapor deposition

A cold working steel was coated both with high temperature CVD (TiN) and moderate temperature CVD (Ti[C,N]). AES depth profiles show a significant difference at the interface, where a thin oxide layer remains detectable at deposition temperatures of 750 °C. It could be shown that an impedance signal at a frequency of 13 MHz is well suited to detect the early stages of the growth of a CVD coating. Received: 15 July 1997 / Revised: 5 February 1998 / Accepted: 9 February 1998