DEPOSITION OF TERNARY HARD COMPOUNDS WITH A GRADED COMPOSITION BY THE USE OF A HYBRID SOURCE ION-PLATING TECHNIQUE

Different ternary compounds consisting of two metals (type (M1, M2)X) were deposited by the use of a hybrid ion-plating deposition set-up with two cathodic sources, namely an arc source and a magnetron source. Simultaneous ablation from these two elemental metallic sources allows deposition of ternary compounds in a broad range of coating compositions without using expensive alloy sources. Deposition of graded coatings with different concentrations of the individual metals M1 and M2 in the thickness of the film can be easily controlled by changing the source power of the individual sources during the deposition process. The usefulness of the process is demonstrated by deposition examples of various ternary compounds, such as (Ti, Al)N, (Ti, Cr)N, (Ti, Nb)N, (Ti, Ta)N, (Ti, W)N, (Ti, Zr)N, (Cr, Al)N, (Cr, Ta)N and (Cr, W)N.