Mechanical properties of amorphous and crystalline CrN/CrAlSiN multilayer coating fabricated using HPPMS

In this study, CrN/CrAlSiN multilayer coatings were prepared on Si wafer, high-speed steel and 304 stainless steel substrates via high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering with targets of metallurgical Cr30Al60Si10 and Cr. The structural characteristics of the coatings were modulated by performing deposition under a fixed rotation speed while varying the nitrogen-argon flow ratio. FE-SEM revealed that increasing the nitrogen content decreased the grain size and thickness of the coatings. GIXRD analysis revealed that the crystallinity of the multilayer changed from an amorphous phase to crystalline structures as a function of N2 gas flow conditions. Improvements were exhibited in the hardness (from 13.3 to 26.8 GPa) and Young's modulus (from 261 to 402.2 GPa) with a period of modulation of 12 nm and crystal transformations. The adhesion strength of the multilayer improved from 17.2 to 66.6 N.