AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Monday Sessions
       Session SE+AS+NS+TR-MoM

Paper SE+AS+NS+TR-MoM1
Reactively Sputter Deposited Ternary AlN-based Coatings

Monday, October 19, 2015, 8:20 am, Room 212A

Session: Nanostructured Thin Films and Coatings
Presenter: Joerg Patscheider, Empa, Switzerland
Authors: J. Patscheider, Empa, Switzerland
E. Lewin, Uppsala University, Sweden
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The protection of surfaces against preventing premature failure by abrasion-resistant nitride coatings has been investigated and put into daily operation ever since. Despite these efforts, the wide range of available protective coatings cannot be used, when glass and other optically transparent materials have to be protected due to the opacity of transition metal nitrides for visible light. For such applications thin films based on Al-A-N with additions of elements from group 14 with A = Si , Ge or Sn are attractive candidate materials, as their transparency in the visible range opens new opportunities of applications. Furthermore, the addition of these elements causes the formation of solid solutions and of nanocomposites, leading to enhanced hardness in the case of A = Si and Ge. Once nanocomposites are formed, enhanced hardness of more than 30 GPa is observed in the case of Al-Si-N and more than 20 GPa for Al-Ge-N and Al-Sn-N. The choice of the additional A element allows for the preparation of highly transparent coatings for the case of Si and the control of color in the range from yellow to red by tuning of the UV absorption edge in the case of Ge and Sn. The role of deposition conditions and their implications on the structure these ternary nitride coatings will be discussed.