Mechanical Measurements of Multilayer Thin Films Obtained by aPAPVD System

Extract

The need of techniques for determining the mechanical properties of thin films, e.g. hardness coatings on ion beam treated surfaces has prompted a study of the microindentation hardness technique. The present interest is driven to a good understanding of the adhesion, friction, wear, and indentation processes. In most of the solid-solid interfaces of technological relevance, it occurs contact in many asperities, and this is why the study of fundamental properties of micro-mechanic and tribology of surfaces and interfaces is very important. The recent developments of different microscopic techniques based on tips and force surface devices (i.e. AFM, FM, LFM) allowed investigations of interfacial problems with high resolution and have led to the nanoscale regime the mechanical properties study for a wide spectrum of materials. In this work a method for Young's modulus determination of hard coatings multilayers of TiN/ZrN is evaluated. This method is based on AFM and spectroscopy-force modes [1-2].