Increasing the thermal stability of a Cr/Sc multilayer by nitriding

Abstract

The effect of nitridation of Cr, Sc or both layers in the ultrathin multilayer structure Sc/Cr on the intermixing of thin Cr and Sc layers, as-deposited and after annealing at different temperatures were considered in details. The processes of passivation by nitrogen and synthesis in nitrogen medium of chromium and scandium layers are also compared. It was established that during passivation process the nitrogen interacts with surface of scandium film forming a ScNx compound and does not interact at all with the chromium layer. A net scavenging of nitrogen is observed in the case of CrNx/Sc system, while in the Sc/CrNx system the interaction of scandium with nitrogen gas before chromium layer deposition with formation of some amount of ScNx is added.Based on theoretical analysis of the effect of nitriding the system and detailed analysis carried out by photoelectron spectroscopy a multilayer system [Sc/CrNx]300 was synthesized and analyzed at different temperatures of annealing. Analysis of X-ray diffraction data showed that the sample consists of X-ray amorphous layers, the crystallinity of which practically does not change with increasing temperature. The results show that the [Sc/CrNx]300 system with small nitrogen content is very resistant to elevated temperatures up to 450 °C.