According to at least one feature of the present disclosure, a method of forming an optical element, includes: Depositing an aluminum layer atop a glass substrate via a physical deposition process; depositing a first fluorine containing layer atop the aluminum layer via a physical deposition process; depositing a second fluorine containing layer atop the first fluorine containing layer via a physical deposition process; and depositing a third fluorine containing layer atop the first fluorine containing layer via an atomic layer deposition process.

Methods for forming a laminate film on substrate by a plasma-enhanced cyclical deposition process are provided. The methods may include: providing a substrate into a reaction chamber, and depositing on substrate a metal oxide laminate film by alternatingly depositing a first metal oxide film and a second metal oxide film different from the first metal oxide film, wherein depositing the first metal oxide film and the second metal oxide film comprises, contacting the substrate with sequential and alternating pulses of a metal precursor and an oxygen reactive species generated by applying RF power to a reactant gas comprising at least nitrous oxide (N.sub.2O).

Provided is a coated cutting tool, which includes a hard coating film containing a layer (b) formed of a nitride or a carbonitride, a layer (c) which is a layered coating film formed by alternately layering a nitride or carbonitride layer (c1) that contains 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al, Cr having a second highest content percentage, and at least Si and a nitride or carbonitride layer (c2) that contains 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al and Ti having a second highest content percentage, each layer having a film thickness of 50 nm or less, and a layer (d) that is a nitride or carbonitride that contains, with respect to a total amount of metal elements (including metalloid elements), 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al, Cr having a second highest content percentage.

A cutting tool comprises a substrate and a coating layer provided on the substrate, the coating layer including a multilayer structure layer composed of a first unit layer and a second unit layer, and a lone layer, the lone layer including cubic Ti.sub.zAl.sub.1-zN crystal grains, an atomic ratio z of Ti in the Ti.sub.zAl.sub.1-zN being 0.4 or more and less than 0.55, the lone layer having a thickness with an average value of 2.5 nm or more and 10 nm or less, the multilayer structure layer having a thickness with an average value of 10 nm or more and 45 nm or less, one multilayer structure layer and one lone layer forming a repetitive unit having a thickness with an average value of 20 nm to 50 nm, a maximum value of 40 nm to 60 nm, and a minimum value of 10 nm to 30 nm.

A coated die for use in hot stamping has a hard film having an alternating lamination section formed by alternating lamination of a1 layers consisting of nitride having 30% or more of chromium in atomic ratio in a metal part, and a2 layers consisting of nitride having 50% or more of vanadium in atomic ratio in a metal part. When t.sub.a1 and t.sub.a2 are defined as thicknesses of the a1 layer and the a2 layer respectively, a film thickness ratio Xb is defined as a film thickness ratio t.sub.a2/t.sub.a1 of a1 layers and a2 layers adjacent to each other in a substrate-side region of the alternating lamination section and a film thickness ratio Xt is defined as a film thickness ratio t.sub.a2/t.sub.a1 of a1 layers and a2 layers adjacent to each other in an outermost surface side region of the alternating lamination section, it holds that Xt>Xb.

A cutting tool comprises a substrate and a coating layer provided on the substrate, the coating layer including a multilayer structure layer composed of a first unit layer and a second unit layer, and a lone layer, the lone layer including cubic Ti.sub.zAl.sub.1-zN crystal grains, an atomic ratio z of Ti in the Ti.sub.zAl.sub.1-zN being 0.5 or more and 0.65 or less, the lone layer having a thickness with an average value of 2.5 nm or more and 10 nm or less, the multilayer structure layer having a thickness with an average value of 10 nm or more and 95 nm or less, one multilayer structure layer and one lone layer forming a repetitive unit having a thickness with an average value of 30 nm to 70 nm, a maximum value of 40 nm to 100 nm, and a minimum value of 20 nm to 40 nm.

The invention provides substrates with a multi-layer coating, comprising in order: i) the substrate; ii) a seed layer; ill) a barrier layer deposited via a CVD method; and iv) a functional layer deposited via a PVD method, and methods of making such coatings. The coatings of the invention have been shown to possess good resistance to corrosion.

A protective coating layer, an electronic device including such a protective coating layer, and the methods of making the same are provided. The electronic device includes a substrate, a thin film circuit layer disposed over the substrate, and a protective coating layer disposed over the thin film circuit layer. The protective coating layer includes a first coating and a second coating disposed over the first coating. Each coating has a cross-plane thermal conductivity in a direction normal to a respective coating surface equal to or higher than 0.5 W/(m*K). The first coating and the second coating have different crystal or amorphous structures, different crystalline orientations, different compositions, or a combination thereof to provide different nanoindentation hardness. The first coating has a hardness lower than that of the second coating.

A method for depositing carbon on a substrate in a processing chamber includes arranging the substrate on a substrate support in the processing chamber. The substrate includes a carbon film having a first thickness formed on at least one underlying layer of the substrate. The method further includes performing a first etching step to etch the substrate to form features on the substrate, remove portions of the carbon film, and decrease the first thickness of the carbon film, selectively depositing carbon onto remaining portions of the carbon film, and performing at least one second etching step to etch the substrate to complete the forming of the features on the substrate.

A hard coating for cutting tools according to the present invention is a hard coating for cutting tools which is formed on and adjacent to a hard base material by a PVD method, and is characterized in that the thickness of the entire hard coating is 0.5 to 10 μm, and the hard coating includes one or more nitride layers and one or more oxide layers. Each of the one or more nitride layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 5.0 μm and is composed of Al.sub.aTi.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) or Al.sub.aCr.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) in a cubic phase, and each of the one or more oxide layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 3.0 μm and is composed of γ-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in a cubic phase. When the number of compositionally discontinuous interfaces throughout the hard coating including the hard base material is n, the n satisfies 4≤n≤9, and the ratio of the microhardness (H1) of the nitride layer to the microhardness (H2) of the oxide layer satisfies 1.03<H1/H2<1.3, and the ratio of the elastic modulus of the nitride layer (E1) to the elastic modulus of the oxide layer (E2) satisfies 1.1<E1/E2<1.3. Each of the nitride layers and each of the oxide layers have an elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of 0.07 to 0.09 and a plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of 0.13 to 0.29, and the elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of the entire hard coating is 0.09 to 0.12, and the plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of the entire hard coating is 0.29 to 0.32.