Abstract
Methods of X-ray diffraction analysis, mass-spectrometry, and atomic force microscopy have been used to perform a comparative analysis of factors that cause the appearance of residual stresses in TiN coatings deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering and to study their effect on specific magnetic losses in electrical-sheet steel. Physical and mechanical parameters of coatings, such as hardness, elastic modulus, residual stress, microstructure, and surface morphology, have been studied. It has been shown that the level of internal stresses in a coating depends on its thickness and increases with increasing quantity and energy of ions in the deposited beam. The maximum magnitudes of compressive stresses in coatings (13 GPa) were obtained when using an unbalanced working regime of the magnetron and a negative bias at the substrate. The hardness of coatings produced under such conditions reaches 29 GPa. There has been demonstrated a possibility of reducing losses in electrical-sheet steels by about 15% by depositing surface coatings with high compressive stresses.
