Structure and mechanical properties of low temperature magnetron sputtered nanocrystalline (nc-)Ti(N,C)/amorphous diamond like carbon (a-DLC) coatings

This paper reports on the structure and mechanical properties of ~ 2 µm thick nanocrystalline (nc-) Ti(N,C)/ amorphous (a-) diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings deposited on 100Cr6 steel substrates, using low temperature (~ 200 oC) DC reactive magnetron sputtering. The carbon content was varied with acetylene partial pressure in order to obtain single layer coatings with different a-DLC carbon phase fractions. The nanocrystalline Ti(N,C) phase is approximately stoichiometric for all coatings and the DLC phase fraction increases from 31 ¿ 47 at. % as the coatings stoichiometry changed from TiC1.34N0.51 to TiC2.48N0.48, respectively. TiC1.34N0.51 coatings showed the highest nano-indentation hardness (H) of ~14 GPa and a modulus (Er) of ~144 GPa; H reduced to < 6 GPa and Er to < 70 GPa for TiC2.48N0.48 coatings. Nc-Ti(N,C)/a-DLC coatings are promising candidates for applications where better matching of the modulus between relatively low modulus substrate, hard loading support layer and low modulus-high H/E ratio top layer is required.

TSOTOS C.;  BAKER M.A.;  POLYCHRONOPOULOU K.;  GIBSON Peter;  GIANNAKOPOULOS K.;  POLYCARPOU A.;  BOBEL K.;  REBHOLZ C.; 

2010-10-19

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

JRC52037

0040-6090,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC52037,   

10.1016/j.tsf.2010.07.049,