Structure and properties of Ti-Al-Y-N coatings deposited from filtered cathodic-arc plasma in gas Ar and N2 mixture

The results of studies of the structure and stress state of Ti-Al-Y-N coatings deposited by the PIII & D method from a filtered vacuum arc plasma under conditions of supplying a pulsed substrate bias potential at an amplitude of 1.5 kV are presented. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to study the influence of argon additives in the range of 0 to 30% to nitrogen on the characteristics of coatings. It is established that, regardless of the argon concentration in the gas mixture, the coatings have nearly close elemental composition and a nanocrystalline structure of the cubic solid solution (Ti, Al)N (structural type NaCl) with a biaxial texture [110] and [100]. As the argon content increases, the columnar microstructure and the size of the nitride crystallites in the coatings are retained, the level of compressive stresses changes nonmonotonically in the range of 6–8 GPa, and the hardness of the coatings remains at a high level of 32–34 GPa.