Six strategies to produce application tailored nanoscale multilayer structured PVD coatings by conventional and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS)

The application field of functional coatings produced by Physical Vapor Deposition, (PVD) is ever expanding. Consequently the demand for novel materials exhibiting extraordinary properties is growing intensively. The paper summarises the experience and the expertise gained at Sheffield Hallam University in UK through work dedicated to the development of such advanced materials spanning more than two decades. It discusses six strategies to produce PVD coatings where the main three steps followed in any coating development process namely material selection, structure selection and finally coating deposition method consideration have been application informed. All described coatings however, utilise nanoscale multilayer structure and have been deposited by Direct Current Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering (DCMS) or the novel High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) techniques.