Modulation ratio and properties of ZrN/W2N nano-multilayers

ZrN/W2N nano-multilayers with different thickness and a fixed bi-layer period of 30 nm were grown by magnetron sputtering. The interfacial microstructures and mechanical properties were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron mi-croscopy (SEM). The results show that the modulation ratio significandy affects the mechanical property of the multilayer. For example, insertion of ZrN layer minimizes the stress in W2N layer. As the thickness ratio of ZrN and W2N lowers to 2:3, the hardness and elastic modulus increases up to 34 GPa and 424 GPa, respectively. Besides, the interfacial adhesion between the multilayers and the substrate maximizes, with a critical load higher than 100 mN. The interfaces were found to be sharp and well defined. Possible mechanism was also tentatively explained.