Reactive
magnetron sputtering of solid solution strengthened Al-Cr-O-N thin films
D. Diechle, M. Stüber,
H. Leiste, S. Ulrich, KIT,
Twelfth
International Conference on Plasma Surface Engineering, 13 – 17 September 2010,
Posterpräsentation, PO2092, 14 September 2010, Poster Session 2
Hard, tough, wear and oxidation resistant thin
film materials withstanding high temperatures and mechanical loads are
important for tribological and tool applications. Ternary
Al-Cr-O and related solid solution strengthened PVD thin films are promising
candidates for such applications due to their thermal stability, chemical
inertness and hot hardness. .
A new combinatorial
approach to the design and growth of quaternary Al-Cr-O-N thin films by means
of reactive r.f. magnetron sputtering will be presented. The deposition
experiments were carried out with a Leybold Z 550 PVD machine by sputtering
from a segmented Al-Cr target in an Ar-O-N atmosphere. The substrate
temperature during deposition was adjusted to 500 °C. In this study the
reactive gas flows and the substrate bias were systematically varied. Detailed
results on the coatings composition, constitution, microstructure and
properties will be presented and discussed in comparison to ternary Al-Cr-O
thin films deposited under identical conditions. The nanocrystalline thin films
were characterized by determining their micro hardness by Vickers indentation,
their residual stress by curvature method, their density by X-Ray reflection
(XRR), their chemical composition by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), their
microstructure by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and their constitution by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).