Compositional and structural evolution of sputtered Ti-Al-N

The compositional variation induces a corresponding structural modification between single-phase cubic, mixed cubic-hexagonal and single-phase hexagonal. However, the maximum Al content for single-phase cubic Ti1−xAlxN strongly depends on the deposition conditions and was obtained with x = 0.66, for the coating deposited at 500 °C, pT = 0.4 Pa, ST = 85 mm, and pN2/pT = 17%. Our results show, that in particular, the N2-to-total pressure ratio in combination with the sputtering power density of the Ti0.5Al0.5 compound target has a pronounced effect on the Al/Ti ratio and the structure development of the coatings prepared.