Structure of multilayered Cr(Al)N/SiOx nanocomposite coatings fabricated by differential pumping co-sputtering

Abstract

Structure and mechanical properties of nanoscale multilayered CrN/ZrSiN coatings J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 27, 672 (2009); 10.1116/1.3136856Ti-Al-Si-N films for superhard coatings deposited by reactive cosputtering using Ti, Al, and Si targets

Structural Investigation of AlN/SiOx Nanocomposite Hard Coatings Fabricated by Differential Pumping Cosputtering

“…Thus, the hardness of AlN coating was improved by fabricating the nanocomposite AlN/SiO x , although excess addition of the SiO x whose H IT is 12 GPa made the coatings soft. As reported in our previous papers (Kawasaki et al, 2013a(Kawasaki et al, , 2015 In the present AlN/SiO x layer, the oxide particles were mainly segregated along the boundaries between AlN columnar grains or subgrains within the columns, whereas in Cr(Al)N/oxide layers they were included in Cr(Al)N crystallites (Kawasaki et al, 2013a(Kawasaki et al, , 2015. The origin of the difference may be ascribed to the difference of affinity for the oxide between the hexagonal AlN crystal and cubic Cr(Al)N crystal.…”

“…The AlN and SiO x were alternately deposited on the rotating substrate from an Al target in Chamber A and from a SiO 2 target in Chamber B. The deposition was made directly on the Si substrate without any transition buffer layers, unlike the previous experiments where deposition for the composite layer was made on the transition buffer layers on the Si substrate (Kawasaki et al, 2013a(Kawasaki et al, , 2013b(Kawasaki et al, , 2015. The sputtering deposition was performed for 1,080 min with a mixed flow of Ar (8 sccm) and N 2 (40 sccm) gases at RF power of 200 W in Chamber A and a flow of Ar (20 sccm) gas at RF power of 49 W in Chamber B, so as to obtain a nominal composition of AlN/40 vol% SiO x .…”

“…We prepared Cr(Al)N/SiO x nanocomposite hard coatings in this DPCS system to elucidate the growth process of those sputter-deposited coatings (Kawasaki et al, 2013b) and studied the relation of the structure and mechanical properties of the fabricated hard nanocomposite coatings (Kawasaki et al, 2013a). As the deposited oxide is not a stoichiometric composition of SiO 2 , we use the term SiO x for the deposited silicon oxide.…”

Multilayered Cr(Al)N/SiOx Nanocomposite Coatings Fabricated by Differential Pumping Cosputtering

“…The indentation hardness of the present sample, measured using a nanoindentation system (Fischerscope, H100C-XY p ), was as low as ~25 GPa. This is ascribed to the composition and the substrate rotation speed [3]. The hardness of Cr(Al)N/SiO x coatings decreased monotonously from ~27 GPa for no fraction of SiO x [Cr(Al)N] to ~10 GPa for pure SiOx with increasing SiO x fraction.…”

“…First, three depositions were successively performed on the Si substrate by sputtering only from the CrAl target in chamber A, with different gas flows. They are the transition layers to promote adhesion between the composite layer and substrate [2,3]. Next, the main deposition was carried out for 660 min by operating both the CrAl chamber A and the SiO 2 chamber B, on the transition layers rotated at the same speed.…”