Structural and mechanical properties of Si-doped CrN coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering technique.

This study successfully deposited Si-doped CrN coatings onto Si (100) substrate by direct current magnetron sputtering. The concentration of Si in the CrSiN coatings was varied by changing the Si target current during deposition. The microstructural and mechanical properties were determined by employing X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and nanoindentation test. According to the results, the coating with 3.3 at.% Si contents (CrSiN-2) show an increase and decrease in the crystallite size and coating surface roughness, respectively, leading to solid solution hardening with an optimum hardness and elastic modulus of 21.37 GPa and 205.68 GPa, respectively. With continued Si addition, the coating roughness increased and the mechanical properties gradually decreased and attained 184.08 GPa and 18.95 GPa for the elastic modulus and hardness of the coating with a maximum Si concentration of 9.2 at.% (CrSiN-5).
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)