CHARACTERIZATION OF THICK-FILM TI AL NANOLAMINATES/

Titanium/aluminium nanolaminates, with repeat periods between 5 nm and 10 mm and an overall deposit thickness of up to 2 mm, have been produ ced by physical vapour deposition using both thermal and electron beam evaporation followed by quenching onto a rotating, heated substrate. Deposits were characterised using a range of techniques including ener gy filtered transmission electron microscopy and conventional electron energy loss spectroscopy. The microstructures of the nanolaminates wa s shown to vary according to substrate temperature and the relative th ickness of the layers. All the samples contained a range of intermetal lics both at the layer interfaces and in regions where the layered str ucture had broken down. Theories hale been postulated to account for t he presence of the intermetallics, including atomic impingement during deposition and diffusion. Fee Ti was also observed in cross-sectional TEM specimens. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.