Wear behavior of DC unbalanced magnetron sputter deposited ZrCN films

For many years, TiN has been the most generally used film in every field of applications Another transition metal Zr, which belongs to the same periodic element group as Ti, is also an attractive material. There have been a lot of research reports discussing ZrN. However, knowledge on ZrCN is still limited. This paper presents initial experimental results on ZrCN films obtained with a DC unbalanced magnetron sputtering machine. The main purpose of this study is to understand the effects of variations in the ratio of C2H2 / N2 reactive gas flow rates and the additions of Ti and W on the hardness and wear performance of ZrCN series of films, while keeping the total of C2H2 and N2 flow rates constant at 15 sccm. The results showed that the hardness and wear behavior of ZrCN films were strongly dependent on the variations in the ratio of C2H2 / N2 reactive gas flow rates. The addition of Ti and W led to a significant enhancement in wear performance of ZrCN films, as well as in their hardness. The enhancement by Ti addition was greater than that by W addition. ZrCN, with and without Ti/W additions, showed much better wear behavior than TiN.