Effect of periods on wear performance of TiN/AlN superlattice films

In this study, the TiN/AlN superlattice films were prepared using a newly developed high-rate reactive sputtering set-up, which featured an unbalanced and a balanced magnetron sputtering system. The former was employed to deposit the A1N film, and the latter the TiN film. The aim of this study was to obtain, through controlling the deposition conditions, a group of TiN/AlN superlattice films with various periods, and then to investigate the influence of periods on their fundamental properties and wear behavior. The results revealed that the TiN/AlN superlattice films with periods ranging from 2.4 to 67.6 nm were obtained. At periods ≦ 3.6 nm, the films had extremely high hardness, excellent adhesion and wear performance, as compared with the traditional single-layer TiN film.