Abstract
Titanium nitride is a ceramic coating where titanium and nitrogen form a
crystalline compound with a face-centered cubic structure that has a relatively high hardness
(25 GPa) and good adhesion on many substrates. However, temperature stability is limited
to about 500 °C. Among the elements to improve this property (like Al, Si, ..) it was decided
to study the influence of hafnium. Ti-Hf-N thin films were deposited on Si substrates by
reactive co-sputtering with a fixed power on the Ti target and variable power on the Hf
target. This led to the formation of TixHf1-xN single-phase coating with a variable
composition. The Hf /(Ti + Hf) ratio was varied between 0.23 and 0.70. When the titanium
is substituted by the hafnium, the conical columnar microstructure is replaced by a dense
and amorphous-like microstructure. The maximum hardness (30 GPa) is reached for a ratio
Hf / (Ti + Hf) = 0.51.