Effects of substrate bias frequencies on the characteristics of chromium nitride coatings deposited by pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Chromium nitride coatings have been used widely in industrial due to their good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. In this work, the pure chromium nitride coatings were prepared by a bipolar symmetric pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering system at four different bias frequencies. It is observed that the texture of CrN changed from (200) to (220) as substrate bias frequencies and bias current increased. It was concluded that the high substrate bias current showed strong detrimental effects on the microstructures, adhesion and wear properties of thin films. A pure CrN thin film with sufficient hardness, adhesion and wear resistance properties combinations was achieved as deposited at a substrate bias current lower than 0.394 A in this study. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.