Interfacial Phase Stability in TiV Multilaminate Thin Films

Abstract

The influence of the interfacial energy on the material phase stability is investigated for a series of TiV multilaminate thin films. Experiments reveal that at a higher layer thickness, the α (hcp) phase is the most stable. As the layer thickness is reduced, a transformation from the α (hcp) phase to the β (bcc) phase occurs. Atomic-scale characterization of the transformed specimen by atom probe tomography reveals V interfacial diffusion between the layers. Equivalent crystal theory based calculations confirm the V interfacial diffusion mechanism. The predicted segregation profiles match those obtained experimentally.