Influence of helium ion irradiation on the stress evolution in nc-ZrN/a-ZrCu multilayered films

Abstract

The paper presents the results of stress evolution in nc-ZrN/a-ZrCu multilayered films with different Cu concentration (from 44.6 to 73.8 at.%) and thickness of amorphous layer ZrCu (5 and 10 nm) after He2+ (40 keV and fluences from 5.0´1016 to 1.1´1018cm-2) ion irradiation. It has been found that irradiation with helium ions leads to a decrease in the level of compressive stresses. In this case, for multilayer films with an amorphous layer thickness of 5 nm at a dose of more than 9.0´1018 cm-2, the stresses decrease to zero and become tensile. The decrease in the stress level is mainly associated with the effects of radiation erosion of multilayer films.