Influence of Substrate Bias Voltage on Properties of Medium-Frequency Magnetron Sputtering WS2 Soft Coatings

WS2 soft coatings were deposited by medium-frequency magnetron sputtering, multi-arc ion plating and ion beam assisted deposition technique on the YT15 cemented carbide substrates. The influence of the substrate bias voltage on the coating properties has been studied. The coatings exhibited a dense and fine grained structure. WS2 soft coatings with substrate bias voltage of -100 V revealed a better coating properties than other four samples, as the best crystallization of (002) preferred crystal orientation of Ⅱ texture, the most smooth and uniform microstructure of the coating, the largest critical load of 43.25 N and the largest coating thickness of 1.5 μm. But the microhardness of sample S1 was only 515.4 Hv. The critical load and the thickness of WS2 coatings decreased firstly, then increased, and finally reduced with the increasement of substrate bias voltage. And the microhardness of the coatings decreased firstly, then increased, and decreased, finally increased with the increasement of substrate bias voltage.