Synthesis of (Ti, Zr)N hard coatings by unbalanced magnetron sputtering

In this study, ternary (Ti,Zr)N thin films were synthesized using unbalanced magnetron sputtering with pulsed substrate bias. The pulsed bias effectively eliminated the arcing damage caused by surface contaminants and oxides on the substrate. The results show that a solid solution of (Ti,Zr)N (evidence from XRD and TEM analysis) was formed at all deposit parameters in which the multicomponent Ti–Zr–N coatings were deposited. The (Ti,Zr)N grains are columnar and grow in the (111) orientation. The ternary (Ti,Zr)N coating demonstrates an enhanced microhardness compared with the binary TiN and ZrN coatings deposited under equivalent conditions. A better combination of condition of the values of microhardness and adhesion was obtained at OEM of 60% and bias of –70 V.