Elaboration, characterization of Cr-N based coatings

Cr, CrN and CrAlN monolayers were synthesized by RF dual magnetron sputtering on AISI4140 steel and silicon substrates at 200°C. Multilayers coatings based on the three mono-layers such as CrN/CrAlN and Cr/CrN/CrAlN were also synthesized only on Si. The physico-chemical and mechanical properties of the layers were determined by AFM, SEM+WDS, stress, roughness and nanoindentation measurements. The influence of the thickness on the mechanical properties of the monolayers stresses has been studied and as a consequence we compared the mono and multilayers stress state