• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2003

Quaternary Ti-Al-Si-N films were deposited on WC-Co substrates by a hybrid deposition system of arc ion plating (AIP) method for Ti-Al source and DC magnetron sputtering technique for Si incorporation. The synthesized Ti-Al-Si-N films were revealed to be composites of solid-solution (Ti, Al, Si)N crystallites and amorphous Si3N4 by instrumental analyses. The Si addition in Ti-Al-N films affected the refinement and uniform distribution of crystallites by percolation phenomenon of amorphous silicon nitride, similarly to Si effect in TiN film. As the Si content increased up to about 9 at.%, the hardness of Ti-Al-N film steeply increased from 30 GPa to about 50 GPa. The highest microhardness value (~50 GPa) was obtained from the Ti-Al-Si-N film haying the Si content of 9 at.%, the microstructure of which was characterized by a nanocomposite of nc-(Ti,Al,Si) N/a$-Si_3$$N_4$.