Effects of second metal contents on microstructure and micro-hardness of ternary nitride films synthesized by cathodic arc method

Current status of ternary nitride films such as Ti1−XAlXN, Ti1−XCrXN, Ti1−XZrXN, Cr1−XAlXN, Zr1−XAlXN and Ti1−XWXN was briefly summarized focused on micro-hardness with respect to different X value. The cathodic arc method is a specialized method in creating metastable ternary films which cannot be synthesized under stable thermodynamic conditions. The crystal structure and lattice parameter of ternary films change with X value and their physical properties correspondingly change as well. In this paper, the maximum hardness of ternary nitride films with particular X value was discussed based on the phase transition, analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM).