Experimental and computational studies on toughness enhancement in Ti-Al-Ta-N quaternaries

Design of hard ceramic material coatings with enhanced toughness, which prevents crack formation/propagation leading to brittle failure during application, is a primary industrial requirement. In this work, experimental methods supported by ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations and electronic structure analyses are used to investigate the mechanical behavior of magnetron sputtered Ti-Al-Ta-N hard coatings. The as-deposited...