In present study, Co/Cu multilayers with bilayer period thickness less than 100 nm were grown by electrodeposition. By changing deposition potentials alternating Co and Cu layers were deposited from single solution on (001)-oriented Si wafers and polycrystalline copper plates.

The structure of Co/Cu multilayer was investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the multilayered deposits have columnar structure, with various column diameters. The column diameters and the preferential crystallographic orientation depend on the total thickness of the deposit (number of Co/Cu bilayer repetitions).

The mechanical properties of Co/Cu multilayers were investigated by hardness measurements on Knoop microhardness tester (10 g load) and tribological tests on T-05 tester. For these investigations the series of Co/Cu multilayers with the bilayer periods in the range from 2 nm to 40 nm (with constant total thickness of the deposit equals 3 μm) were electrodeposited on copper plates. It was found that hardness of the Co/Cu multilayers depend on the bilayer period. The maximum hardness, 500 HK_0.01, could be obtained for the nanoscale multilayered coating with the bilayer period of 10 nm, which is much higher than those of Co and Cu single layer coatings. We also observed completely different wear mechanism of Co/Cu multilayers for bilayer period 6, 10 and 40 nm.

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