Superhardness Effect in Au/Ni multilayers.

摘要

The presence of an enhanced hardness, that is a 'Superhardness Effect, is found as a behavior parallel to the Supermodulus Effect in Au/Ni multilayer structures. The submicron thick Au/Ni coatings are prepared by magnetron sputter deposition. A microindenter is used to measure load as a function of indentation depth. An increase in hardness is measured as the Au/Ni layer pair spacing decreases. A local maximum in hardness occurs for samples with layer pairs consisting of 4-6 atomic planes of each metal component.