Atomic environment and interfacial structural order of TiAlN/Mo multilayers

Multilayered TiAlN/Mo coatings were deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering in a custom-made chamber. In order to assess the composition of these coatings, a combined study of Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) experiments were performed. Through the simulation of the EXAFS spectra, giving the local environment of the titanium atoms inside the nitride (TiAlN), a cubic phase has been evidenced with aluminium atoms occupying titanium sites. For modulation periods in the range of 3.6–11.8 nm, RBS simulations on these multilayers also enabled the determination of the level of intermixing that occurs at the interfaces as a function of the negative bias voltage and number of layers. It was observed that the intermixing width could be as high as 2.1 nm for the roughest samples (larger periods) or as low as 0.4 nm for those with the sharpest interfaces (smaller periods).