Annealing effect on the structure, phase composition, and nanohardness of titanium/fullerite films

The effect of heat treatment on the structure, phase composition, and nanohardness of titanium/fullerite films of different thicknesses produced by thermal evaporation in vacuum has been studied using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nanoindentation. The results demonstrate that annealing at 570 K increases the grain size of the films and leads to the formation of a TixC60 phase. The nanohardness of the annealed films varies little with depth owing to the interdiffusion of Ti atoms and C60 molecules.