Specific Features of the Microstructure and Properties of Multielement Nitride Coatings Based on TiZrNbAlYCr

Multicomponent nanostructured coatings based on (TiZrNbAlYCr)N with a hardness as high as 47 GPa were obtained by cathodic arc deposition. The effect of partial nitrogen pressure P_N (with constant bias potential U_b =–200 V applied to the substrate) on the phase-composition variation, the size of crystallites, and their relation to the microstructure and hardness was investigated. An increase in the nitrogen pressure resulted in the formation of two phases with characteristic BCC (the lattice period is 0.342 nm) and FCC lattices with averaged nanocrystallite sizes of 15 and 2 nm. At a high pressure of 0.5 Pa, crystallites in the FCC phase with a lattice period of 0.437 nm grew in size to ~7 nm. The hardness of deposited coatings with larger (3.5 nm) FCC-phase crystallites and smaller (7 nm) BCC-phase crystallites was enhanced considerably.