Adhesion improvement of carbon-based coatings through a high ionization deposition technique

The deposition of highly adherent carbon nitride (CNx) films using a pretreatment with two high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) power supplies in a master-slave configuration is reviewed. SKF3 (AISI 52100) steel substrates were pretreated in the environment of a high ionized Cr+Ar plasma in order to sputter clean the surface and implant Cr metal ions. CNx films were subsequently deposited at room temperature by DC magnetron sputtering from a high purity C target in a N2/Ar plasma discharge. All processing was done in an industrial-scale CemeCon CC800 coating system. A series of depositions were obtained with samples pretreated at different bias voltages (DC and pulsed). The adhesion of CNx films, evaluated by the Daimler-Benz Rockwell-C test, reaches strength quality HF1. Adhesion results are correlated to high resolution transmission electron microscopy observations confirming the formation of an optimal interfacial mixing layer of Cr and steel. The throwing power increase for HIPIMS coatings is associated to the higher ionization in the plasma discharge.