Enhancement of the Corrosion Resistance of CrN Film Deposited by Inductively Coupled Plasma Magnetron Sputtering

Inductively coupled plasma magnetron sputtering (ICPMS) has the advantage of being able to dramatically improve coating properties by increasing the plasma ionization rate and the ion bombardment effect during deposition. Thus, this paper presents the comparative results of CrN films deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS) and ICPMS systems. The structure, microstructure, and mechanical and corrosive properties of the CrN coatings were investigated by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation, and corrosion-resistance measurements. The as-deposited CrN films by ICPMS grew preferentially on a 200 plane compared to dcMS on a 111 plane. As a result, the films deposited by ICPMS had a very compact microstructure with high hardness. The nanoindentation hardness reached 19.8 GPa, and 13.5 GPa by dcMS. The corrosion current density of CrN film prepared by ICPMS was about 9.8 × 10 -6 mA/cm 2 , which was 1/470 of 4.6 × 10 -3 mA/cm 2 , the corrosion current density of CrN film prepared by dcMS.