Characteristics of silicon doped chromium nitride coatings produced by magnetron sputtering : the influence of processing parameters

Silicon doped chromium nitride thin films have been deposited by r.f. reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of processing parameters, namely the nitrogen partial pressure in the working atmosphere and the power density applied to the Si target, on the properties on the films structure and mechanical properties has been investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to analyze the crystalline phases, crystal orientation/texture, size and micro-stress state of the produced films. The mechanical properties, namely the hardness, and resistance to plastic deformation were obtained by nanoindentation. These studies allow establishing relations between the characteristics of the films. The results showed that all the coatings present a face-centered cubic (fcc) CrN structure, with (111) preferred orientation. The calculated grain size is between 13 and 18 nm. The highest measured hardness was around 34 GPa for a film produced with produced with the lowest nitrogen flow rate