Growth, structural and mechanical properties of magnetron-sputtered ZrN/SiNx nanolaminated coatings.

Coatings with nanoscale architectures, such as nanocomposites or nanolaminates, offer improved mechanical properties and resistance to radiation environments due to their increased interface area per unit volume. Here, we present a systematic study of the evolution of structure, stress state and mechanical properties of nanoscale ZrN/SiN x multilayers with different thickness of elementary layers, grown at T s = 300 °C by reactive magnetron sputter-deposition from Zr and Si 3 N 4 targets. Both the multilayer period Λ (7–41 nm range) and ZrN thickness ratio, f Me , (0.24–0.95 range) were varied. X-ray reflectivity and transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of planar interfaces, with roughness lower than 1 nm, yielding to the formation of a highly periodic layer stacking throughout the entire film thickness. X-ray diffraction (XRD) show that the presence of amorphous SiN x layer (for elementary thickness h a ≥ 1 nm) induces a change in the preferred orientation of the cubic (B1-type) ZrN layers from (111) to (002), while the ZrN layer becomes X-ray amorphous at thickness h Me lower than 2 nm. Using in situ wafer curvature measurements we show that both SiN x and ZrN layers are growing under an intrinsic compressive stress state, of a constant value of − 1 GPa for SiN x and varying from − 5.7 to − 4 GPa with increasing ZrN layer thickness. Nanoindentation tests revealed a gradual increase of the elastic modulus from 200 to 265 GPa with f Me , while the hardness showed a maximum ( H = 24.1 GPa) for the ZrN(8 nm)/SiN x (0.4 nm) multilayer, corresponding to an 3–4 GPa increase compared to monolithic ZrN (21.0 GPa) and Si 3 N 4 (19.2 GPa) films. We ascribe this enhancement of mechanical properties to local epitaxy and stronger bonding at (001) ZrN/SiN x interfaces when the SiN x thickness reduces down to 0.4 nm, as confirmed by XRD results obtained from ZrN/SiN x superlattices grown on MgO (001) substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]