We have applied atom probe tomography (APT) to analyze self-organizing structures of wear-resistant Zr0.69Al0.31N thin films grown by magnetron sputtering. Transmission electron microscopy shows that these films grow as a three-dimensional nanocomposite, consisting of interleaved lamellae in a labyrinthine structure, with an in-plane size scale of ~ 5 nm. The structure was recovered in the Al APT signal, while the Zr and N data lacked structural information. The onset of the self-organized labyrinthine growth was observed to occur by surface nucleation, 5–8 nm above the MgO substrate, due to increasing Zr–Al compositional fluctuations during elemental segregation. At a final stage, the labyrinthine growth mode was observed to be interrupted by the formation of larger ZrN grains.
CITATION STYLE
Johnson, L. J. S., Ghafoor, N., Engberg, D., Thuvander, M., Stiller, K., Odén, M., & Hultman, L. (2016). Self-organized nanostructuring in Zr0.69Al0.31N thin films studied by atom probe tomography. Thin Solid Films, 615, 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2016.07.034
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