Structural features of the multilayer nitride coatings formation

Abstract

The features of structure and properties formation of multicomponent (high-entropy) and multilayer transition metals nitride coatings of deposited by reactive magnetron (HF and DC) sputtering of targets in Ar + N 2 mixture atmosphere was analyzed. It is shown that the formation of texture and columnar structure of films occurs due to changes the deposition conditions. Moreover, transition metals nitride films (TiN, HfN, et al.) have textured growth plane (111) and nanohardness values about 36 GPa at close to stoichiometric compositions. X-ray analysis of nitride multilayer coatings shows that the multilayers have a cubic structure with a preferential orientation (111) or (200) depending on the period of modulation Λ . It is shown that one of the methods of its preparation is the use of elements (Zr,Y). Correlations between structure and physico-mechanical properties of the coatings, as well as the effect of multilayers deposition conditions and modulation period on the hardness value were exhibited. Conducted researches show that the use of multi-component and multi-layered nitride coating allows to obtain super hard nitride coating (> 40 GPa,) with high elastic recovery (W e up to 83%) and high resistance to plastic deformation (H 3 /E *2 up to 0.75).