Effect of modulation period and thickness ratio on the growth and mechanical properties of heteroepitaxial c-Ti0.4Al0.6N/h-Cr2N multilayer films

c-TiAlN/h-Cr2N multilayer thin films, with modulation period λ of 10 nm, 20 nm, and 30 nm and different Cr2N/ λ thickness ratios (25 %, 50 % and 75 %), were deposited on c-plane sapphire using reactive DC magnetron sputtering. All multilayers exhibited preferred orientation [Cr2N(0001)/ TiAlN(111)]x, regardless of the modulation period and thickness ratios. X-ray diffraction φ-scans revealed an influence of the Cr2N layer thickness on the overall orientation quality of the multilayer, where the thicker the Cr2N layer the higher orientation quality. Atomically resolved high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy revealed well defined and homogeneous atom stacking in the Cr2N layers. In contrast, the cubic TiAlN layer was found to be composed of coherent cubic AlN-rich and TiN-rich regions. Additionally, the TiAlN layers were found with a higher density of grain boundaries compared to the Cr2N layers. Mechanical properties evaluation revealed that the film with a 20 nm period and 75 % Cr2N thickness ratio exhibited the highest hardness of 27.11 ± 0.72 GPa and an elastic modulus of 349.1 ± 6.84 GPa. The hardness increased as the thickness of Cr2N increased, until reaching 10 nm, after which it remained at a high level (~ 25 GPa).