Measurement of the residual stress in CrN coatings deposited on an Al alloy substrate

Chromium nitride (CrN) coatings were deposited on Al alloy substrates using the arc ion plating method with different bias voltages and different thicknesses. The residual stresses of these samples were measured via x-ray diffraction using the sin2 ψ method because the CrN crystals in the coatings were nonoriented. The stress gradient across the CrN coating was calculated from the curved 2θ-sin2 ψ diagram. In the case of CrN coatings deposited at low bias voltage, the compressive residual stress that formed at the substrate interface was larger than the stress at the surface of the CrN coating. Conversely, in the case of CrN coatings deposited at high bias voltage, the compressive residual stress on the surface of the CrN coating was larger than the stress on the interface with the substrate. In CrN coatings deposited at high bias voltage, very large compressive residual stress on the CrN coating surface decreased with increasing coating thickness

Residual stress measurement of {112}-oriented CrN layers in CrN/Cr multilayer films

In this work, the authors propose and verify a method of measuring the residual stress of {112}-oriented chromium nitride (CrN) layers in CrN/Cr multilayer thin films. The CrN layers of a CrN/Cr multilayer film deposited on a Ti6Al4V substrate by arc ion plating form both a randomly oriented mixed crystal structure and a {112}-oriented structure. Therefore, accurate stress measurement of the CrN layers cannot be performed by applying the sin2ψ x-ray method assuming an isotropic homogeneous material. To overcome this obstacle, the proposed method to measure the residual stress uses four CrN-422 diffractions: at ψ = 0°, 33.56°, 48.19°, and 60.00°. Next, the authors vary the density of Cr droplets on the film surface to evaluate how it affects the residual stress in the CrN/Cr multilayer film. The results indicate that the Cr layer has a residual compressive stress of −350 to −530 MPa and that the two CrN layers have a very large residual compressive stress of −3.5 to −8.2 GPa. In addition, both residual compressive stresses decrease with increasing droplet density