A Comparative Study of Nanocrystalline TiAlN Coatings Fabricated by Direct Current and Inductively Coupled Plasma Assisted Magnetron Sputtering

Nanocrystalline TiAlN coatings were prepared by reactively sputtering TiAl metal target with N2 gas. This was done using a magnetron sputtering system operated in DC and ICP (inductively coupled plasma) conditions at various power levels. The effect of ICP power (from 0 to 300 W) on the coating microstructure, corrosion and mechanical properties were systematically investigated using FE-SEM, AFM and nanoindentation. The results show that ICP power has a significant influence on coating microstructure and mechanical properties of TiAlN coatings. With increasing ICP power, the coating microstructure evolved from the columnar structure typical of DC sputtering processes to a highly dense one. Average grain size of TiAlN coatings decreased from 15.6 to 5.9 nm with increasing ICP power. The maximum nano-hardness (67.9 GPa) was obtained for the coatings deposited at 300 W of ICP power. The smoothest surface morphology (Ra roughness 5.1 nm) was obtained for the TiAlN coating sputtered at 300 W ICP power.