Deposition of TiZrV coatings onto inner wall of stainless steel pipe by DC magnetron sputtering

Titanium-zirconium-vanadium(TiZrV) non-evaporable getter (NEG), which can be fully activated after 24 hours heating at 180 ℃, has been applied in some particle accelerators owing to its outstanding vacuum performance. In our experiments, TiZrV films were deposited onto the inner wall of stainless steel pipes via DC sputtering using argon gas as the sputtering gas. Witness samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The average composition of TiZrV samples deposited under various conditions was Ti 30%, Zr 30%, and V 40%, which is in the “low activation temperature zone”. XRD results show that TiZrV films are amorphous and composed of nanocrystalline grains.