Cathodic Arc Deposition of ZrNbN Coating

Abstract

Cathodic arc deposition is used to produce ZrNbN coating with the different niobium concentration. Investigated are the elemental and phase compositions of the obtained coating, its structure and properties. It is shown that various parameters of niobium cathode discharge modify the elemental composition of ZrNbN coating. The dependencies are obtained for physical-and-mechanical and tribological properties on the niobium concentration in ZrNbN coating. It is shown that the coating with the niobium concentration of 9.8 at.% has the best properties, such as 39.4 GPa hardness, 0.03 μm roughness, 0.43 friction coefficient and not over 9.4·10^–6 mm³/(N·m) wear rate.