Workpiece having a hard material layer

Abstract

A workpiece includes a substrate and a hard material layer disposed over the substrate. The hard material layer comprises at least one first metal nitride layer and at least one second metal nitride layer disposed one over the other. The first metal nitride layer has a composition (Tia,Sib,Zz)CpN1-p with optionally added alloying elements Z = (Ni,Ta,Mo,W,Nb,Al), with 0 ⿤ Ni ⿤ 9 at.%, 0 ⿤ Ta ⿤ 15 at.%, 0 ⿤ Mo ⿤ 15 at.%, 0 ⿤ W ⿤ 10 at.%, 0 ⿤ Nb ⿤ 15 at.%, 0 ⿤ Al ⿤ 40 at.%. The second metal nitride layer has a composition (Alc,Tid,Xx,Be)CpN1-p with optionally added alloying elements X = (Ni,Ta,Si,Mo,W,Nb), with 0 ⿤ Ni ⿤ 20 at.%, 0 ⿤ Ta ⿤ 15 at.%, 0 ⿤ Si ⿤ 30 at.%, 0 ⿤ Mo ⿤ 12 at.%, 0 ⿤ W ⿤ 10 at.%, 0 ⿤ Nb ⿤ 15 at.%, wherein 0.50 ⿤ a ⿤ 0.90, 0.05 ⿤ b ⿤ 0.32, 0.30 ⿤ c ⿤ 0.72, 0.20 ⿤ d ⿤ 0.50, 0.01 ⿤ e ⿤ 0.07. In the compositions of the first metal nitride layer and the second metal nitride layer the contents of CpN1-p are in a range of 45 to 55 at.% of the total lattice, C can be partially or completely replaced by O, and 0.00 ⿤ p ⿤ 0.05 for the first metal nitride layer and 0.00 ⿤ p ⿤ 0.05 for the second metal nitride layer.