Thick Ta(N) coating of 51 mu m has been successfully obtained by DCMS technology. Ta(N) is a kind of distorted Ta matrix, which is inter-soluble with N-defect lattice structure, forming the disabled bcc structure. From the XRD and XPS investigations, the composition of Ta(N) coating is consisted of bcc-Ta and bcc-TaN0.06, while that of Ta coating mainly contains beta-Ta phase. It can be concluded from wear test, nanoindentation test and SEM observations, wear resistance of Ta(N) coating is much better than that of Ta coating, due to its high hardness, H/E, H-3/E-2 value and low COF value. The wear mechanism of Ta coating is the compound fatigue and abrasive wear, while that of Ta(N) coating is transformed into adhesive wear mechanism. The secondary adhesion of the plastic deformation for the Ta(N) coating can reinforce the coated surface, to improve the load-bearing and anti-wear capacities, and thus improve the wear resistance. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.