Microhardness and adhesion measurements of reactively sputtered TiN/AlN multilayer coatings deposited as function of mass-flow of nitrogen
Abstract Multilayer coatings of (Ti, Al)N x have been deposited by reactive sputtering from Ti and Al targets in a side-by-side configuration on WC and stainless steel substrates. The rotation of the substrate holder varied from 2 to 14 r.p.m. corresponding to a bilayer thickness of 0.8–8 nm. The acoustic emission scratch technique for adhesion measurements was used for studying coating performance, and critical load values for the coatings on WC substrate up to 150 N were obtained. The Vickers microhardness in the load range 0.003–2 N was measured, and in order to obtain true hardness values, an optimal range of indentation depth and coating thickness was determined. Depending on the nitro…
Reactive sputtering of nanostructured multilayer coatings and their tribological properties
Abstract The present study describes and reports on reactive sputtering of nanostructured multilayer coatings. A 3 μm coating for instance may contain up to a few thousand bilayers of two different film materials, and in order to achieve this, a substrate holder rotates through two different sputtering zones in an Alcatel SC 650 sputtering equipment with metal and carbon cathodes operating concurrently in the so-called side-by-side configuration. In reactive sputtering of nitrides, reactive nitrogen was controlled very accurately in order to establish controllable points on a total sputtering pressure versus nitrogen flow curve. Nanostructured multilayer coatings of the type MeN/C–N were de…