Interrelationships among macrostress, microstructure and mechanical behavior of sputtered hard Ti(Al,V)N films

Abstract The article reports on the influence of a compressive macrostress σ in the Ti(Al,V)N films on their mechanical properties, structure, microstructure, and resistance to cracking. The macrostress σ is controlled by the energy E bi delivered into the growing film by bombarding ions. The Ti(Al,V)N films were sputtered by a dual magnetron with closed magnetic field. It is shown that (1) the compressive macrostress (σ  ∗ , (2) the films exhibits a dense, voids-free, non-columnar microstructure in the case when the energy E bi  ≥ 3 MJ/cm 3 , (3) the enhanced resistance to cracking of the films is controlled by its mechanical properties, microstructure and macrostress σ; here E ∗ is the effective Young’s modulus.