Hard material layers with selected thermal conductivity

A method for manufacturing a metal oxynitride hard material layer of the type MepOnNm with a predetermined oxygen-dependent thermal conductivity, i.e. a predetermined oxygen-dependent thermal conductance, the method comprising:

• a. depositing the MepOnNm layer in a vacuum coating chamber using physical gas phase deposition from at least one target in a reactive gas-containing atmosphere with a substrate temperature Ts and a coating pressure P onto a substrate surface,
• b. using nitrogen and oxygen as reactive gases,
• c. wherein the target contains Me, and
• d. wherein Me comprises at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, and Al and Me further comprises at least one element selected from the group consisting of Y, Ni, B, and Si,
• e. controlling an oxygen concentration in the vacuum coating chamber during the deposition of the MepOnNm layer so that an oxygen concentration value, which has been previously calculated by the correlation κ(χ)=κ0/(1+α·χ), is maintained so that the predetermined oxygen-dependent thermal conductivity in the MepOnNm layer is set during the layer deposition, where:
• i. κ(χ) is the oxygen-dependent thermal conductivity of a MepOnNm layer, which is produced while maintaining an oxygen concentration in the vacuum coating chamber during the layer deposition,
• ii. χ indicates the oxygen concentration in the vacuum coating chamber during the layer deposition,
• iii. κ0 is the thermal conductivity of a first reference layer Mep0On0Nm0, where n0=0% and Mep0On0Nm0 is deposited with the same process parameters described above with regard to the deposition of MepOnNm, but without the use of oxygen as a reactive gas and using only nitrogen instead,
• iv. α is a parameter that includes a scattering cross-section and that is obtained by adapting the above-indicated correlation to experimental data of at least one additional second reference layer Mep1On1Nm1 and one additional third reference layer Mep2On2Nm2, where Mep1On1Nm1 and Mep2On2Nm2 are deposited with the same process parameters described above with regard to the deposition of MepOnNm, but using different oxygen concentrations in the vacuum coating chamber and Mep1On1Nm1 is deposited using an oxygen concentration in the vacuum coating chamber that results in an oxygen concentration in atomic percent of between 5 and 20% in a layer n1 while Mep2On2Nm2 is deposited using an oxygen concentration that results in an oxygen concentration in atomic percent of between 20 and 30% in a layer n2, taking into account that p0+n0+m0=p1+n1+m1=p2+n2+m2=100%, m1 and m2 are greater than zero, p0=p1=p2, and p0/(n0+m0)=p1/(n1+m1)=p2/(n2+m2).