The aim of our research was to investigate the stages of the layer growth during the IPD method.
The materials for our studies were CN_x coatings produced by number of plasma impulses in range 80 - 8000 obtained on the Si substrates. All samples were prepared in the same process conditions. There were used nitrogen gas and a nitrided graphite (an internal electrode of coaxial accelerator) as sources of nitrogen and carbon atoms, respectively. The layers were examined by the TM AFM and SEM techniques as main investigations. We also researched our films by TEM, XPS and nanohardness for characterization of deposit material.
Based on the microscopy studies we observed that layer morphology changed significantly with a number of the plasma impulses during the deposition process. There are formed flat, width islands in result of a surface migration of clusters for the thin film. An increase of the number of the plasma impulses leads to creation of a few separated little pillars. We consider that this is the beginning of crystallization. Further increase of amount of the plasma impulses cause the accumulation of heat in the coating/substrate system. Therefore, there are generated a lot of nuclei and in the consequence we note strongly growth of pillar number. The final structure of thick layers consists of two zones: an internal area built of a homogeneous material and an external area with a highly anisotropic structure.
Up to now this type of structure was not observed during the IPD processes. The mechanism of the layer growth is difficult to explain. It is probably that this is connected with the accumulation of heat, therefore it might be a result of the layer recrystallization.

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