Effects of carbon and nitrogen ion implantations on surface and tribological properties of Ti-Al-Si-N coatings

The post-treatment of ion implantation on hard coatings attracts a great deal of attention because of the improvement in coating surface properties. The present research investigates the effect of nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and carbon followed with nitrogen (C+N) ion implantations on the structural and mechanical properties of the Ti-Al-Si-N coatings. Ion implantations were performed at an energy of 50 keV and different doses. The surface properties of the implanted layer were identified by a variety of analytic techniques, such as cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nanoindentation measurement. Additionally, the wear performance of the samples was evaluated by a typical ball on disc tribometer in dry conditions. The results showed that the surface properties depended strongly on the implanted species and doses. In addition, a great improvement in the wear was observed on the samples with the post-treatment process of C and C+N ion implantations.