AlCrN, AlCrBN monolayer, and AlCrBN/AlCrN multilayer coatings with various modulation periods were deposited by multi-arc ion plating. The microstructure and mechanical response of the coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nanoindentation, and the indentation response was further analyzed by finite element simulation. All coatings exhibited a dense structure and a single-phase face-centered cubic (fcc) phase. B addition refined the microstructure and promoted the formation of an amorphous BNx phase, whereas the multilayer design produced a clear layered architecture. Among the tested coatings, T20 showed the highest hardness (33.48 GPa), whereas T15 exhibited the highest H3/E*2 value (0.116 GPa). Finite element results showed that the monolayer coatings developed a continuous semi-ellipsoidal stress field, whereas the multilayer coatings exhibited a stepwise redistribution of von Mises stress that confined the high-stress region to the upper-middle part of the coating and reduced the equivalent plastic strain. The maximum shear stress was located at a depth of about 0.6 μm below the surface. These results indicate that the local layer thickness near this depth should be considered in multilayer design to reduce the likelihood of shearinduced delamination. The study provides experimental and numerical support for the design of AlCrN-based multilayer hard coatings.

AlCrBN/AlCrN, multilayer coatings, B-doping, finite element method, stress distribution, mechanical properties