Crystallization of AlON and its effects on the growth and hardness of reactively synthesized VN/AlON nanomultilayer

VN/AlON nanomultilayers with various individual VN and AlON layer thickness are prepared. The effects of the individual modulation layer thickness on the growth and mechanical properties of the multilayers are studied. Under the template effect of crystalline VN layers, AlON with very low layer thickness (⩽0.5 nm) is crystallized and grows epitaxially with VN layers, accompanied by a remarkable increase in hardness. On further increase of the AlON layer thickness, the AlON gradually becomes amorphous, resulting in a rapid decline in hardness.