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

The article reports on the influence of a compressive macrostress sigma in the Ti(Al,V)N films on their mechanical properties, structure, microstructure, and resistance to cracking. The macrostress sigma is controlled by the energy epsilon(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 (sigma < 0) increases the hardness H of the film and the ratio H/E*, (2) the films exhibits a dense, voids-free, non-columnar microstructure in the case when the energy epsilon(bi) >= 3 MJ/cm(3), (3) the enhanced resistance to cracking of the films is controlled by its mechanical properties, microstructure and macrostress sigma; here E* is the effective Young's modulus. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.