The influence of substrate rotary speed, species of reaction gases and flows on nanoindentation, nanoscratch fracture, and residual stress were explored on reactive sputtered nanoscale CrN/ZrN multilayered coatings. Hardness and critical fracture load as high as 32 GPa and 85 mN with desirable compressive stress were achieved for this model. A proper percentage of NH 3 in N 2 reaction gas was also proved to be of benefit to synthesize high-hard and fractureresistant CrN/ZrN coatings. The low-angle XRD patterns provided the layer modulation period of the coatings. A marked polycrystallite of two-cubic NaCl phase CrN + ZrN as well as probably hexagonal Cr 2 N with small modulation period corresponded to the enhanced mechanical properties.

This article reports the synthesis of ZrN∕W2N multilayered coatings with nanoscale bilayer period using rf magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, nanoindenter, and profiler were employed to investigate the influence of working pressure on microstructural and mechanical properties of the coatings. Well-defined composition modulation and layer structure of the multilayered coating are indicated directly. A mixed polycrystalline of ZrN(111), W2N(111), W2N(200) and W2N(311) textures appeared in the multilayered structures. All multilayered coatings revealed higher nanohardness, elastic modulus, critical load, and lower residual stress than the rule-of-mixture value of monolithic ZrN and W2N coatings, especially for one prepared at 0.8Pa working pressure.