Deposition of superhard Ti-C-N plasma coatings in nitrogen atmosphere

The possibility of obtaining a superhard plasma coating based on titanium, nitrogen and carbon on a metal substrate in a nitrogen atmosphere is shown. The coatings were deposited in one short-term accelerator operation cycle under the action of a hyperspeed jet of electroerosive Ti-containing plasma on the substrate surface. It has been shown by SEM and XRD that nanostructured layers of titanium nitride and titanium carbonitride are formed, providing a high hardness of the coating. Plasma coatings deposited in a nitrogen atmosphere have a higher hardness (19.6 GPa) than coatings deposited in air (16.2 GPa), which is due to a higher content of nitride crystalline phases in the coating material. XRD data showed that the coherent-scattering region of crystalline phases in coatings deposited in an atmosphere of air and in a nitrogen atmosphere is ~10-40 nm, which confirms the nanostructuring of all crystalline phases presented in the coating.