Structural and mechanical properties of CrN thin films deposited on Si substrate by using magnetron techniques

Chromium Nitride thin films are known for their good mechanical properties. We present the characteristics of ultrathin Chromium Nitride films under 400 nm thickness deposited on silicon substrates by direct current and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering techniques. The methods of investigation of the CrN films were scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and nanoindentation. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were performed using the AFM and SEM images by fractal dimension, surface roughness and gray-level co-occurrence matrix methods. Our results show that using the mag-netron techniques, ultrathin CrN films with excellent mechanical properties can be obtained.