Designing hard wear-resistant conductors by introducing high-plasma-energy heterogeneous metals into transition metal nitrides

摘要

1.Introduction Hard and wear-resistant conductors(HWCs)refer to functional films with simultaneously high hardness,high wear resistance,and good electrical conductivity.HWCs have important applica-tions such as next-generation sliding electrical contacts,high-end conductive probe-tip,and oval hole guides for the precision rolling mill[1-4],which has drawn extensive research interests.However,it is still challenging to integrate high hardness,super wear resis-tance,and high electrical conductivity in one material.Tradition-ally,researchers have mainly alloyed the highly conductive met-als Cu,Au,and Pt to improve their hardness and wear resistance.