Fabrication and characterization of HfC/SiC nanomultilayered films with enhanced mechanical properties

• The HfC/SiC nanomultilayered films were prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering.
• Effects of SiC layer thickness on structure and mechanical properties were studied.
• The amorphous SiC layers could be crystallized and grow epitaxially with HfC layers.
• The maximum hardness and elastic modulus reached 36.2 and 419 GPa, respectively.

A series of HfC/SiC nanomultilayered films with different SiC layer thickness were synthesized by reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of SiC layer thickness on the microstructure and mechanical properties of HfC/SiC nanomultilayered films were studied. When SiC layer thickness was less than 0.9 nm, originally amorphous SiC layers were forced to crystallize and grow epitaxially with HfC layers, resulting in the improvement of crystallization integrality and enhancement in hardness and elastic modulus. The maximum hardness and elastic modulus could reach 36.2 GPa and 419 GPa, respectively. With further increase of SiC layer thickness, SiC layers changed back to amorphous state and damaged the epitaxial growth structure, leading to deterioration of mechanical properties.