The Influence of the Annealing Process on the Mechanical Properties of Chromium Nitride Thin Films

In recent years, significant attention has been directed toward the development of coating materials capable of tailoring surface properties for various functional applications. Transition metal nitrides, in particular, have garnered interest due to their superior physical and chemical properties, including high hardness, excellent wear resistance, and strong corrosion resistance. In this study, a fabrication process for CrN-based thin films was developed by combining reactive direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS) with post-deposition annealing in air. CrN coatings were deposited by reactive dcMS using different argon-nitrogen (Ar:N2) gas ratios (4:1, 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1), followed by annealing at 550 °C for 1.5 h in ambient air. XRD and EDS analysis revealed that this treatment results in the formation of a composite phase comprising CrN and Cr2O3. The resulting coating exhibited favorable mechanical and tribological properties, including a maximum hardness of 12 GPa, a low wear coefficient of 0.254 and a specific wear rate of 7.05 × 10−6 mm3/N·m, making it a strong candidate for advanced protective coating applications.