HOMOGENEITY OF MULTICOMPONENT HARD COATINGS STUDIED BY SURFACE ANALYTICAL DEPTH PROFILING AND MODEL-CALCULATIONS

Hard nitride coatings find their use as protective layers on tools and machinery components and in the field of decorative applications. The interest is increasingly focused on ternary nitrides that are deposit ed by physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques, often using a combi nation of multi-source arrangements with multifold sample rotations. I n the present paper the elemental in-depth composition of multi-compon ent hard coatings is discussed, presenting experimental results of (Ti ,Pd)N, (Cr,Pd)N, (Ti,Cr)N, (TI,AI)N, (Ti,Al,Zr)N and (Nb,Cr)N hard coa tings. The AES and glow discharge optical spectroscopy in-depth analys es show an oscillating and more complex elemental distribution caused by the sample movement where a specific surface area passes different sources at different distances and different angles. These analyses ag ree with the results obtained by model calculations. (C) 1998 John Whe y & Sons, Ltd.