The structure and mechanical properties of magnetron sputtered VSiN coatings

Abstract

VSiN coatings with silicon content ranging from 0 to 19.8 at-% were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The structure and mechanical properties were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and nano-indentation CSM. The results show that the incorporation of silicon does not affect the cubic structure. VSiN coatings consist of a mixture of fcc-VN, hcp-V₂N and amorphous Si₃N₄ phases. The incorporation of silicon results in the crystallite size refinement and the decrease of the average roughness. With the incorporation of silicon content, the growth pattern changed from continuous columnar to discontinuous columnar due to the grain refinement. The H, H/E and H³/E² ratios of VSiN coatings first increase and then decrease and the maximum values are 27 GPa, 0.098 and 0.265 GPa, respectively, at 10.2 at-% Si. All the H, H/E and H³/E² ratios of VSiN coatings are higher than that of vanadium nitride coating.