Hardness and nitrogen bonding structure of AlxTi1-xN/CrN multilayer hard coating.
AlxTi1-xN/CrN multilayer coatings were fabricated by magnetron sputtering and those hardness variations were studied by observing the crack propagation and measuring the chemical bonding state of nitrides by Ti addition. While AlN/CrN multilayer shown stair-like crack propagation, AlxTi1-xN/CrN multilayer illustrated straight crack propagation. Most interestingly, Ti addition induced more broken nitrogen bonds in the nitride multilayers, leading to the reduction of hardness. However, the hardness of Al0.25Ti0.75N/CrN multilayer, having high Ti contents, increased by the formation of many Ti-N bond again instead of Al-N bond. From these results, we found that linear crack propagation behavior was dominated by broken nitrogen bonds in the AlxTi1-xN/CrN multilayer coatings.
Nano Analysis Center Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Hawolkok-dong, Seongbuk-ku, Seoul 130-650, Korea.
Jong-Hyun
JH
Seo
Sang-Won
SW
Yoon
Keun-Hwa
KH
Chae
Jong-Keuk
JK
Park
Jong-Han
JH
Song
Vickram
V
Jayaram
Kon-Bae
KB
Lee
Tae-Yeon
TY
Seong
Hoon
H
Kwon
Jae-Pyoung
JP
Ahn