Synthesis and mechanical properties of Cr–Si–N coatings deposited by a hybrid system of arc ion plating and sputtering techniques

Structure and mechanical properties of reactive sputtering CrSiN films

“…4a shows the Si 2p XPS spectra of the CrSiN film with various Si contents. The peak corresponding to 101.8 eV, which was in good agreement with that of the Si 3 N 4 compound [7], was observed. The peak intensities increased with the increase of Si content.…”

“…The CrN (1 1 1) diffraction peaks shifted to lower angles as the Si contents increased up to 36.8 at.% Si/(Cr + Si) ( Table 1). This could be due to that the added Si atoms were dissolved into CrN lattice [7]. Although the solubility limit of Si in the CrN phase was supposed to be very small, a certain amount of Si atoms could be dissolved into CrN crystal because the physical vapor deposition process was under non-equilibrium status.…”

“…To explore these potential mechanical and especially hightemperature properties, many efforts have focused on the development of complex hard film materials. Recently, it was found that the deposits of multilayer or nanocomposite films improved the mechanical properties [4][5][6][7][8]. Veprek [6] first reported the TiSiN films with hardness exceeding 70 GPa by chemical vapor deposition (CVD).…”

“…The addition of Si to TiN films has been shown to refine the grains through the formation of a nanocomposite structure of nanocrystalline (nc) TiN grains in an amorphous (a) matrix of Si 3 N 4 (nc-TiN/a-Si 3 N 4 ) [6,[8][9][10]. Subsequent investigations were followed on nc-MeN/a-Si 3 N 4 (Me = Cr, Zr, Nb, Mo) nanocomposites [11,7,[12][13][14]. This composite structure of thin amorphous matrix and the crystallites was suggested to hinder the crack formation and propagation.…”

“…However, there is still a dispute on the effects of Si addition to MeN on the bonding structure, crystalline structure and texture of the nanocomposite MeSiN films. The previous investigations on CrSiN films lack systematic research on the microstructural and mechanical properties by addition of Si [11,7,[15][16][17][18][19]. The knowledge and characterization of these parameters are import to understand both the process involved in the preparation and the future behavior of such films.…”