Xiaoman Zhang

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–Si–N coatings

A series of Ti-Si-N coatings with 0 < Si < 20 at.% were synthesized by inductively coupled plasma assisted vapor deposition. Coating composition, structure, atomic short-range order, and mechanical response were characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy, and instrumented nanoindentation. These experiments show that the present series of Ti-Si-N coatings consists of a mixture of nanocrystalline titanium nitride (TiN) and amorphous silicon nitride (a-Si:N); i.e., they are TiN/a-Si:N ceramic/ceramic nanocomposites. The hardness of the present series of coatings was found to be less than 32 GPa and to vary smoothly with the Si composition.

Structure and mechanical properties of Ti-Si-N ceramic nanocomposite coatings

Abstract We have synthesized a series of Ti–Si–N coatings with 0–20 at.% Si by high-density plasma-assisted vapor phase deposition. Composition, structure and atomic short-range order were characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), θ–2θ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. The mechanical properties of these coatings were characterized by instrumented nanoindentation and compared to those of B1-TiN. Our experiments show that the present series of Ti–Si–N coatings are nanocomposites, consisting of a nm-scale mixture of crystalline titanium nitride (TiN) and amorphous silicon nitride (a-Si:N). The hardness of the present series of Ti–Si–N coatings was found to be less than 32 GPa.