The Korean Society of Surface Science and Engineering

Nanocrystalline zirconium nitride (ZrN) coatings were deposited by mid-frequency direct current sputtering (mfMS) with varying pulsed plasma parameters such as pulse frequency and duty cycle to understand the effect of pulsed plasma on the microstructure, residual stress and mechanical properties. The results show that, with the increasing pulse frequency and decreasing duty cycle, the coating morphology changed from a porous columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. Mid-frequency magnetron sputtered ZrN coatings with pulse frequency of 30 kHz showed the highest both nanoindentation hardness of 16.3 GPa, and elastic modulus of 214.4 GPa. In addition, Effect of pulse frequency on a residual stress and average crystal grain sizes was also investigated.

Keywords Mid-frequency magnetron sputtering; ZrN; Pulse frequency; Residual stress; Nanoindentation.