Depth-resolved X-ray residual stress analysis in PVD (Ti, Cr) N hard coatings

Physical vapour deposition (PVD) of thin hard coatings on TiN basis is usually performed at rather low temperatures (TD < 500 C) far from thermal equilibrium, which leads to high intrinsic residual stresses in the growing film. In contrast to the extrinsic thermal residual stresses which can easily be estimated from the difference of the coefficients of thermal expansion between the substrate and the coating, a theoretical prediction of the intrinsic residual stresses is difficult, because their amount as well as their distribution within the film depend in a very complex way on the deposition kinetics. By the example of strongly fibre-textured PVD (Ti, Cr)N coatings which have been prepared under defined variation of the deposition parameters in order to adjust the residual stress distribution within the coatings, the paper compares different X-ray diffraction techniques with respect to their applicability for detecting residual stresses which are non-uniform over the coating thickness. (orig.)