The post-treatment of ion implantation on hard coatings attracts a great deal of attention because of the improvement in coating surface properties. The present research investigates the effect of nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and carbon followed with nitrogen (CzN) ion implantations on the structural and mechanical properties of the Ti-Al-Si-N coatings. Ion implantations were performed at an energy of 50 keV and different doses. The surface properties of the implanted layer were identified by a variety of analytic techniques, such as cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nanoindentation measurement. Additionally, the wear performance of the samples was evaluated by a typical ball on disc tribometer in dry conditions. The results showed that the surface properties depended strongly on the implanted species and doses. In addition, a great improvement in the wear was observed on the samples with the post-treatment process of C and CzN ion implantations.
ExperimentalTiAlSiN coatings with a typical thickness of 1?5 mm were deposited onto hardened M2 high speed steel and Si substrates by reactive close field unbalanced magnetron sputtering system (Teer UDP-450) with a high purity of Ti, Al and Si targets. In order to increase the adhesion of the coating, a Ti buffer layer was first deposited. By optimising the deposition conditions, TiAlSiN coatings [39 at-%Ti, 11 at-%Al, 4 at-%Si and 46 at-%N, determined by X-ray Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management