Residual Stress and Tribological Performance of ZrN Coatings Produced by Reactive Bipolar Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering

In the past few decades, ZrN thin films have been identified as wear resistant coatings for tribological applications. The mechanical and tribological properties of ZrN thin layers depend on internal stress induced by the adopted deposition techniques and deposition parameters such as pressure, temp...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Anna Maria Laera, Marcello Massaro, Domenico Dimaio, Aleksandar Vencl, Antonella Rizzo
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
T
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/eaebde6fb083464a8f555d78e61fecf3
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:In the past few decades, ZrN thin films have been identified as wear resistant coatings for tribological applications. The mechanical and tribological properties of ZrN thin layers depend on internal stress induced by the adopted deposition techniques and deposition parameters such as pressure, temperature, and growth rate. In sputtering deposition processes, the selected target voltage waveform and the plasma characteristics also play a crucial influence on physical properties of produced coatings. In present work, ZrN thin films, obtained setting different values of duty cycle in a reactive bipolar pulsed dual magnetron sputtering plant, were investigated to evaluate their residual stress through the substrate curvature method. A considerable progressive increase of residual stress values was measured at decreasing duty cycle, attesting the significant role of voltage waveform in stress development. An evident correlation was also highlighted between the values of the duty cycle and those of wear factor. The performed analysis attested an advantageous effect of internal stress, having the samples with high compressive stress, higher wear resistance. A downward trend for wear rate with the increase of internal residual stress was observed. The choice of suitable values of duty cycle allowed to produce ceramic coatings with improved tribological performance.