This work presents simulations of the solid state diffusion and reactions during deposition processes. Two cases are studied where the diffusion in and between coating and substrate is simulated. The processes simulated are in one case directed vapor deposition of Al and Ni on a precoated nickel-base superalloy, and in the other case chemical vapor deposition aluminization of a nickel-base superalloy. The simulations result in composition and phase-fraction profiles, which are presented and compared with experimental composition profiles. The simulation results are generally in good agreement with the experimental profiles.

The reactivity of a quaternary multi-principal element alloy (MPEA), CoCrFeNi, as a substrate in thermal halide chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes for titanium nitride (TiN) coatings was studied. The coatings were deposited at 850 degrees C-950 degrees C using TiCl4, H-2 and N-2 precursors. The coating microstructures were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Thermodynamic calculations of substrate and coating stability for a gas phase environment of N-2 and H-2 within a temperature range relevant for the experiments showed that Cr is expected to form hexagonal Cr2N and cubic (Ti1-epsilon 1 Cr epsilon 1)N or (Cr1-epsilon 2 Ti epsilon 2)N phases. These phases could however not be discerned in the samples by XRD after the depositions. Cr was detected at the grain boundaries and the top surface by EDS for a sample synthesized at 950 degrees C. Grain boundary and surface diffusion, respectively, were the suggested mechanisms for Cr transport into the coating and onto the top surface. Although thermodynamic calculations indicated that Cr is the most easily etched component of the CoCrFeNi alloy to form gaseous chlorides in similar concentrations to that of the residual Ti-chlorides, no sign of etching were found according to the imaging of the sample cross-sections using SEM and TEM. Cross-section and top surface images further confirmed that the choice of substrate had no significant detrimental influence on the film growth or microstructure.

The (100), (110) and (111) surface energies of random AlxTi1-xN alloys with homogeneous concentration profile are determined in first-principles calculations. The (100) surface has the lowest energy of 1.25 J/m(2) in the case of TiN and 1.32 J/m(2) for cubic AlN and exhibit very little concentration dependence. The (110) and (111) surfaces have much higher energy for all the compositions. The segregation energies of Ti and Al were obtained for the (100) surface of pure TiN and cubic AlN as well as Al0.5Ti0.5N and Al0.9Ti0.1 N random alloys. In the latter case, we have used two different methods: direct averaging of the substitution energies with respect to the local environment of the substitution site and the cluster expansion technique (CLE). We find that the segregation of Ti is favorable in the whole concentration range of random AlxTi1-xN alloys. However, it is weak in almost the whole concentration range except in the Al-rich alloys: Al0.9Ti0.1N -/+ and cubic AlN. The strengthening of the surface segregation of Ti in the latter case is related to the sharp increase in phase separation tendency in AlxTi1-xN alloys at compositions close to pure AlN. The increased tendency for Ti segregation close to pure AlN helps explain the formation of a lamella structure in industrially important AlxTi1-xN coatings. As for nitrogen vacancies, their segregation energies are relatively small in the whole concentration range, but for pure AlN where they exhibit strong preference for the surface. The latter is obviously connected with the fact that cubic AlN has a high degree of ionic bonding and a vacancy creation on the nitrogen sublattice is highly energetically unfavorable, especially in the bulk due to a larger number of Al-N ionic bonds.

Depositing homogeneous TiAlN coatings with a high Al content on cutting tool inserts is a challenging task. In this work, high-Al cubic Ti1- xAlxN coatings (average x = 0.8) with periodic Ti(Al)N (x = 0.5) and Al(Ti)N (x = 0.9) nanolamellae structure were synthesized by low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) with different gas flow velocities, and the detailed microstructure was investigated by electron microscopy and simulations. Using a high gas flow rate, the columnar TiAlN grains with regular periodic nanolamella structures disappeared, the coating became enriched in Ti and hexagonal AlN (h-AlN) formed in the coating. The high Ti content is suggested to be caused by the high gas flow rate that increases the mass transport of the reactants. However, this does not influence the Al-deposition much as it is mainly limited by the surface kinetics due to the relatively low deposition temperature. Density functional theory (DFT) modelling and electron microscopy showed that h-AlN tends to form on the Ti(Al)N phase with a specific crystallographic orientation relationship. The Ti enrichment due to high gas flow rate promotes the formation of h-AlN, which therefore deteriorates the nanolamella structure and causes the disappearance of the columnar TiAlN grains. Thus, by designing the CVD process conditions to avoid too high gas flow rates, homogenous TiAlN coatings with high Al content and nanolamella structures can be deposited, which should yield superior cutting performance.

The temperature dependence of the surface free energy of the industrially important TiN(001) system has been investigated by means of an extended two-stage upsampled thermodynamic integration using Langevin dynamics (TU-TILD) methodology, to include the fully anharmonic vibrational contribution, as obtained from ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). Inclusion of the fully anharmonic behavior is crucial, since the standard low-temperature quasiharmonic approximation exhibits a severe divergence in the surface free energy due to a high-temperature dynamical instability. The anharmonic vibrations compensate for the quasiharmonic divergence and lead to a modest overall temperature effect on the TiN(001) surface free energy, changing it from around 78 meV angstrom(-2) at 0 K to 73 meV angstrom(-2) at 3000 K. The statistical convergence of the molecular dynamics is facilitated by the use of machine-learning potentials, specifically moment tensor potentials, fitted for TiN(001) at finite temperature. The surface free energy obtained directly from the fitted machine-learning potentials is close to that obtained from the full AIMD simulations.