Effect of carbon on microstructure of CrA1CxNI-x coatings by hybrid coating system

A systematic investigation of the microstructure of CrA1CxN1-x coatings as a function of carbon contents was conducted. Quaternary CrA1CxN1-x coatings were deposited on Si wafers by a hybrid coating system combining an arc-ion plating technique and a DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique using Cr and AI targets in the Ar/N2/CH4 gaseous mixture. The effect of carbon content on microstructure of CrA1C~N~ x coatings was investigated with instrumental analyses of X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the carbon content of CrA1CxN1-x coatings linearly increases with increasing CH4/（CH4/N2） gas flow rate ratio. The surface roughness of the CrA1CxN1-x coating layer decreases with the increase of carbon content.