The mechanical properties evaluation of the CrN coatings deposited by the pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Abstract The chromium nitride coatings have been deposited by the bipolar symmetric pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering process at different temperature and pulse substrate bias. The pulse frequencies of target power and the substrate bias were kept at 2 kHz and 50 kHz, respectively. The nanoindenter, scratch and Daimler-Benz Rockwell-C adhesion tests were adopted to evaluate the mechanical properties of the CrN coatings. The preferred orientation of the CrN coatings changed from (111) to (200) with increasing substrate temperature and negative bias voltage applied. The hardness and adhesion properties of the coatings also increased with substrate temperature and a − 290 V bias voltage. A CrN film with 21 GPa in hardness and good adhesion property was deposited at 300 °C and − 290 V bias. It is observed that through the bipolar symmetry pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering process, the CrN films with sufficient adhesion performance was achieved in this work.