The effect of bias voltage and working pressure on S/Mo ratio at MoS2–Ti composite films

S/Mo ratio has a crucial effect on the tribological properties of MoS2–Ti composite films. The deposition parameters as such bias voltage and working pressure play a dominant role on the change of this ratio value. To determine the effect of working pressure and bias voltage on S/Mo ratio, MoS2–Ti composite films were deposited on glass wafers by pulsed-dc magnetron sputtering (PMS). The deposition process was performed for nine different test conditions at various levels of target current, working pressure, and substrate voltage using the Taguchi L9(34) experimental method. It was observed that the chemical composition of MoS2–Ti composite films was significantly affected by sputtering parameters. It was also observed that S/Mo ratio decreased as the bias voltage increased at a constant working pressure and S/Mo ratio increased with increasing working pressure at a constant bias voltage