Abstract

Surfaces with defined nanoroughness and topography are appreciated in many applications. However, such surfaces, often built from deposited nanoparticles, suffer from low hardness and overall mechanical stability. This paper reports the research of ZrN surfaces with defined nanoroughness attained by seed-like growth evoked by Cu nanoparticles. The two-step process consists of (i) deposition of Cu nanoparticles by gas aggregation forming seeds (ii) growth of ZrN with surface nanoarchitecture. Our study faces the challenge to stabilize soft Cu nanoparticles by coating them with a hard, crystalline ZrN film deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) without any post thermal annealing which can be useful for coating heat-sensitive substrates. It is shown that by tailoring the HiPIMS process we were able to deposit hard Cu/ZrN nanocomposite with roughness and morphology predetermined by the Cu nanoparticles. Nano-indentation carried out with a resolution below 1 nm, confirmed sufficient nanohardness of CuNPs/ZrN nanocomposite.

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