Characteristics of TiN/W2N multilayers prepared using magnetron sputter deposition with dc and pulsed dc powers

• TiN/W2N multilayer coating grows continuously in a pseudo epitaxial manner.
• TiN/W2N multilayer coating has been optimized to have a hardness of 34.5 GPa.
• The optimized TiN/W2N multilayer coating exhibits an elastic modulus of 330 GPa.
• The optimized coating also shows better corrosion resistance than the single layers.

A dc magnetron sputter (dcMS) deposition and a pulsed dcMS deposition methods were used respectively to deposit TiN and W2N coatings in a mixture gas of Ar and N2. Single layer TiN and W2N were first obtained to determine the deposition condition for the multilayers. TiN/W2N multilayers were deposited and the effects of the substrate rotation speed and the N2/Ar concentration on microstructure, hardness, and the corrosion property have been examined. It was observed that the multilayer TiN/W2N adheres well onto the substrate. In addition, the hardness and the anti-corrosion property of the multilayer are also better than that of the single-layer coatings.