Investigation of high power impulse magnetron sputtering pretreated interfaces for adhesion enhancement of hard coatings on steel

In order to improve the adhesion of hard coatings such as CrN, a surface pretreatment by the novel high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) technique followed by reactive unbalanced d.c. magnetron sputtering deposition was performed using a Cr target. The HIPIMS plasma comprising a high metal ion-to-neutral ratio consisting of single- and double-charged metal species identified by mass spectrometry increased the metal ion flux to the substrate. When applying a negative substrate bias Ub the adhesion was enhanced due to sputter cleaning of the surface and metal ion intermixing in the interface region. This intermixing, resulting in a gradual change of the composition, is considered to enhance the adhesion of the hard coatings on steel substrates. The pretreatment was carried out in an inert gas atmosphere at a pressure of pAr = 1 mTorr, the duration was varied between 25 and 75 min, whereas the negative substrate bias was varied between 400 V and 1200 V. The adhesion was found to depend on the substrate bias as well as on the target power and, for low substrate bias, on the duration of the pretreatment. For CrN the critical load of failure determined by scratch test could be increased in comparison to the values reported for specimens pretreated by conventional Ar etching. The influence of the target peak voltage, the substrate bias as well as pretreatment time on the constitution and morphology of the interface after the pretreatment is discussed applying analytical transmission electron microscopy.