THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEPOSITION CONDITIONS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TI(C,O,N) THIN FILMS OBTAINED BY SPUTTERING PROCESS

Magnetron sputtering is a flexible technique and allows producing a significant amount of types of coatings, thus, this method was also used within the frame of this paper in order to obtain dark Ti(CON) coatings. The films, with various compositions, were deposited onto high speed steel (AISI M2) substrates, in a closed field unbalanced reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering system, using a reactive atmosphere composed of acetylene (C source) and a mixture composed of oxygen and nitrogen. The deposition parameters were chosen as a junction of pre-existing knowledge about sputtered Ti-O-N and Ti-C-O films, varying the flow ratio C2H2/(O2+N2). Mechanical properties of the films, namely microhardness and Young's modulus were determined using loading and unloading curves data, obtained with an instrumented nanoindentation equipment using a Berkovitch tip.