Effect of the aluminium content and the bias voltage on the microstructure formation in Ti1 − xAlxN protective coatings grown by cathodic arc evaporation

The effect of aluminium contents and bias voltage on the microstructure of cathodic arc evaporated Ti1 − xAlxN coatings was investigated with the aid of X-ray diffraction experiments and transmission electron microscopy. The coatings were deposited from mixed Ti–Al targets with different Ti:Al ratios (60:40, 50:50, 40:60 and 33:67) at bias voltages ranging between − 20 V and − 120 V. The microstructure of the coatings was described in terms of the phase composition, crystallite size and residual stress and related to the indentation hardness. The microstructure features were found to be related to the uniformity of the local distribution of Ti and Al in (Ti,Al)N, which was controlled, for a certain overall chemical composition of the coatings, by the bias voltage. The consequences of large local fluctuations of the Ti and Al concentrations in Ti1 − xAlxN that occurred at higher bias voltages were the phase segregation, which was indicated through the formation of the fcc-(Ti,Al)N/fcc-AlN nanocomposites and the increase of the compressive residual stress in the face-centred cubic (Ti,Al)N. Concurrently, the increasing bias voltage contributed significantly to the reduction of the crystallite size. Higher residual stress and smaller crystallite size increased the hardness of the coatings. The overall chemical composition of the coatings influenced mainly their phase composition. The high concentration of Al in (Ti,Al)N led to the formation of wurtzitic AlN in the coatings.