Abstract
The microstructure and surface morphology of a TiN hard, wear resistant coating on a V820 nitridable alloy ductile steel substrate following nanoindentation have been characterized using focused ion beam (FIB) milling. A TiN coating, ∼0.6μm in thickness, was deposited on a ductile steel substrate using a cathodic arc evaporation (CAE) technique. Pop-in events were observed in the load–displacement curves and correlated to the observed microstructural features. Following nanoindentation with a 1μm radius spherical indenter at loads of 100mN and 500mN, circumferential cracks were observed inside the indentation. Observations of nanoindented cross-sections prepared using FIB revealed both columnar cracks in the coating and shear steps at the coating–substrate interface. These structural features were observed at higher resolution using a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
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