Environmentally-safe high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology was utilized to deposit chromium films. This research focused on the influences of the HiPIMS pulse widths on the microstructure of films deposited at different deposition pressures and substrate bias voltages. Under the conditions of the same average HiPIMS power and duty cycle, the deposition rate of the Cr thin film at working pressure 0.8 Pa is slightly higher than at 1.2 Pa. Also, the difference between deposition rates under two pressures decreases with the discharge pulse width. The deposition rate of the short pulse width 60 μs is lowest, but those of 200 and 360 μs are approximately the same. With no or small direct current substrate biasing, the microstructure of films coated at short pulse width is similar to the typical magnetron sputtering deposited films. Elongating the pulse width enhances the ion flux toward the substrate and changes the film structure from individual prism-like columns into tangled 3-point/4-point star columns. Substantial synchronized substrate biasing and longer pulse width changes the preferred orientation of Cr films from Cr (110) to Cr (200) and Cr (211). The films deposited at longer pulse width exhibit a higher hardness due to the reducing of intercolumn voids.

Titanium nitride (TiN) coating has been used in various application as it gives excellent performance in many aspects. It has been proven to prolong machining tool life since the mid-1960s. Industrial deposition processes of TiN, including magnetron sputtering, arc ion plating, and chemical vapor depositions, have their individual advantages and limitations. Due to the rising demands of the dry machining technique, the massive amount of heat generated from the friction of cutting tools against the surface of a work piece has become the main issue to overcome. Oxidation of TiN, which occurs around 400 °C, puts a limit on the applications of the coatings. Comparing TiN tool coatings deposited by arc evaporation, the novel high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology provides smoother film surface, denser structure and subsequent corrosion resistance. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the wear behavior of TiN thin film deposited by HiPIMS at high temperature. The influences of the coating properties on the wear resistance of coatings at high temperature are also investigated. The results show that the HiPIMS technique enables a denser epitaxial-grown TiN coating with higher surface hardness and adhesion in contrast with TiN coating deposited using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering techniques, which provides a higher wear resistance.

Chromium-carbon films were deposited by utilizing reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering at different mixture ratios of ethyne and argon atmosphere, and different substrate bias voltages and deposition temperature, with the same pulse frequency, duty cycle, and average power. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the obtained films were compared. The films consist of amorphous or nanocrystalline chromium carbide, hydrogenated amorphous carbon, and minor α-chromium phase. Decreasing the fraction of ethyne increases the content of the α-chromium phase but decreases hydrogenated amorphous carbon phase. The film’s hardness increases by enhancing the negative substrate bias and raising the deposition temperature, which could be attributed to the increase of film density and the Hall–Petch strengthening effect induced by the nanoscale crystallization of the amorphous carbide phase.

The thickness of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer significantly affects not only the optical and electrical properties, but also its mechanical durability. To evaluate these influences on the molybdenum-doped zinc oxide layer deposited on a flexible polyethersulfone (PES) substrate by using a dual-ion-beam sputtering system, films with various thicknesses were prepared at a same condition and their optical and electrical performances have been compared. The results show that all the deposited films present a crystalline wurtzite structure, but the preferred orientation changes from (002) to (100) with increasing the film thickness. Thicker layer contains a relative higher carrier concentration, but the consequently accumulated higher internal stress might crack the film and retard the carrier mobility. The competition of these two opposite trends for carrier concentration and carrier mobility results in that the electrical resistivity of molybdenum-doped zinc oxide first decreases with the thickness but suddenly rises when a critical thickness is reached.

The Zr film microstructure is highly influenced by the energy of the plasma species during the deposition process. The influences of the discharge pulse width, which is the key factor affecting ionization of sputtered species in the high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) process, on the obtained microstructure of films is investigated in this research. The films deposited at different argon pressure and substrate biasing are compared. With keeping the same average HiPIMS power and duty cycle, the film growth rate of the Zr film decreases with increasing argon pressure and enhancing substrate biasing. In addition, the film growth rate decreases with the elongating HiPIMS pulse width. For the deposition at 1.2 Pa argon, extending the pulse width not only intensifies the ion flux toward the substrate but also increases the fraction of highly charged ions, which alter the microstructure of films from individual hexagonal prism columns into a tightly connected irregular column. Increasing film density leads to higher hardness. Sufficient synchronized negative substrate biasing and longer pulse width, which supports higher mobility of adatoms, causes the preferred orientation of hexagonal α-phase Zr films from (0 0 0 2) to (1 0 1¯ 1). Unlike the deposition at 1.2 Pa, highly charged ions are also found during the short HiPIMS pulse width at 0.8 Pa argon.