Thermal stability of CrAlN/AlCrN nanolaminate coating deposited by hybrid dcMS/HPPMS after heat treatment with continuous-wave laser

[Display omitted] •Deposition of CrAlN/AlCrN nanolaminate coating using a hybrid dcMS/HPPMS technology.•Nanolayers compose of cubic CrAlN and AlCrN ternary solid solution phases.•Prevailing of bilayer structure of CrAlN/AlCrN near the heat-affected zone after laser heat treatment.•Identification of Al-rich precipitates at grain boundaries after laser heat treatment. Nanolaminate coatings consisting of hundreds of alternating CrN and AlN nanolayers can be used as protective coatings on various manufacturing technology tools. In this work, a coating is investigated, which is deposited using a hybrid direct current and high power pulse magnetron sputtering technology. The coating exhibits a nanolaminate architecture and its nanolayers consist of cubic CrAlN and AlCrN ternary solid solution phases. In order to study the thermal stability especially in the near-surface area of the coating, it is heat treated by using a continuous-wave laser at two different laser power densities. Laser induced heat-affected zone as well as punctual Al-rich precipitates, which are formed at the interface between the Al–rich AlCrN nanolayers and the column boundaries, are investigated using transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the indentation hardness and indentation modulus of the coating are affected only to a small extent by the continuous-wave laser heat treatment.