Magnetron deposition of chromium nitride coatings using a hot chromium target: Influence of magnetron power on the deposition rate and elemental composition

The article focuses on some formation peculiarities of chromium nitride coatings in an argon and nitrogen atmosphere during the magnetron sputtering of a hot chromium target enhanced by a radio-frequency source of inductively-coupled plasma. In the work, the dependence of the deposition rate of coatings on the magnetron power density has been defined, and the contribution of sublimation to deposition rate enhancement has been examined in comparison with conventional sputtering of a cooled target. It has been shown that the dependence of the deposition rate on the magnetron power density is a nonlinearly increasing function of over 18 W/cm 2 . By experiments and calculations, it has been proven that in the range from 18 to 28 W/cm 2 the target sublimation enables an increase in the deposition productivity by a factor from 2 to 12 compared with the cooled target sputtering under the same experimental conditions. For example, in the regime of planetary rotation of the substrates, the deposition rate reaches 5.2 nm/s at 28 W/cm 2 . The elemental and structural-phase composition of the coatings deposited using the planetary rotation of substrates has been studied depending on a magnetron power density. It has been found that with an intense sublimation on the chromium target surface, the coatings have an inhomogeneous elemental and structural-phase composition. In addition, an alternation of chromium layers with a low content of chromium nitride and layers that mainly consist of chromium nitride has been determined. • The deposition rate of CrN x coatings increases by an order of magnitude due to sublimation. • Alternating layered composition of CrN x coatings is formed at power density above 18 W/cm 2 .