A study of AC reactive magnetron sputtering technique for the deposition of compositionally graded coating in the Cr–Al–N system

Cr1−xAlxN coatings were deposited on various substrates using an inverted cylindrical AC magnetron sputtering system with chromium and aluminum targets, at a chamber pressure of 0.2 Pa (1.5 mTorr) for 1.5 h. The present study focuses on the effect of various deposition parameters, such as the N2/Ar ratio and the target power on the properties of the coatings obtained. Some of the samples were subjected to oxidation in still air at 900 °C. The morphology and structure of these coatings were investigated by various analytical techniques such as XRD, SEM, EDAX and EDS. We report on the effect of processing parameters on the morphology, orientation, composition and oxidation behavior of the compositionally graded (Cr1−xAlx)N coatings.