Growth and characterization of Cr2N/CrN multilayer coatings

A series of monolithic and multilayer coatings of chromium nitride with var ious compositions and architectures were deposited at low temperatures (< 2 00 degreesC) on silicon substrates using ion-assisted reactive magnetron sp uttering. All coatings had a total thickness in the 1.5 +/- 0.3 mum range. The multilayer coatings were designed such that their period and CrN fracti on varied in the range 30-150 nm and 0.50-0.93, respectively. Real-time in situ ellipsometry was used to monitor and control the deposition process. T he deposited coatings were characterized post-deposition using X-ray diffra ction (XRD): Rutherford backscattering (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectrosc opy (XPS), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The primary chromium nitrid e phases (Cr2N and CrN) in the films were identified using XRD. The chemica l composition of selected samples was determined from RES and XPS measureme nts. The phase composition of the deposited layers was deduced from the ana lysis of the SE data. The mechanical properties of the coatings were evalua ted using a nanoindenter. The measured hardness values were in excess of 20 GPa. The results of the different characterization and testing techniques were correlated and follow-up work on this project suggested. (C) 2001 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.