Fabrication and its characteristics of hard coating Ti-Al-N system prepared by DC magnetron sputtering

摘要

Pseudobinary Ti 1 x Al x N films were synthesized on Si (100) wafer by DC magnetron sputtering method using Ti 1 x Al x alloy targets with different Al contents. The composition of the Ti 1 x Al x N films was determined by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). Structural characteristic was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). First principles virtual crystal calculations for the Ti 1 x Al x N disordered alloys were used for the XRD simulations. The crystalline structure of the Ti 0.61 Al 0.39 N film was found to be a metastable single phase with NaCl (B1) structure. Its lattice constant, determined by XRD, was less than that of pure TiN. With the increase of Al content, the lattice constant of B1 phase was continually decreased, while würtzite (B4) structure was observed in the Ti 0.40 Al 0.60 N film. When x reached 0.75, the B1 phase disappeared, and only B4 phase was remained. The critical Al content for the phase transition from NaCl to würtzite structure in this paper was about 0.60, which could be explained by both the thermodynamic model and the electron theory. As-deposited Ti 1 x Al x N films exhibited excellent mechanical properties. Hardness measurements of Ti 1 x Al x N films showed a high value of 45GPa for x=0.39 and was decreased to value of 27 GPa with increasing Al at x=0.60.