Effect of substrate pulse bias voltage on the microstructure and mechanical and wear-resistant properties of TiN/Cu nanocomposite films

Abstract:

In this present work, TiN/Cu nanocomposite films were deposited by axial magnetic field-enhanced arc ion plating (AMFE-AIP) on high-speed steel (HSS) substrates, and the effect of substrate bias voltage on the chemical composition, microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of the films were investigated by X-ray photoelectrons spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nanoindentation and wear measurements, respectively. The results showed that Cu content firstly increases and then decreases with the increase of the pulse bias voltage, being a low value in the range of 1.3 to 2.1 at.%. The XRD results showed all the films only appear TiN phase and no Cu phase is observed. And the preferred orientation for the films changes significantly with increasing the pulse bias voltage. The maximum value of hardness, 36 GPa is obtained with pulse bias voltage of -200V corresponding to the film containing approximately 1.6 at.% Cu. Compared to pure TiN film, Cu addition to TiN films significantly improves the wear resistance.