Nanostructured materials like CMA (compositionally modulated alloys) multilayers with bilayer period thickness less than 100 nm have very interesting properties, which are unattainable in bulk materials. The primary interest is in magneto-electrical properties (GMR effect) with the secondary goal of improving the tribological and mechanical properties of the surface.

Cu/Ni multilayers have been grown by electrodeposition from single solution with potentiostatic control. Several Cu/Ni samples deposited on (001)-oriented Si and polycrystalline cooper plates with different sublayer thickness in the range of 1 to 20 nm were investigated. One series of the multilayers with the constant bilayer thickness and two other series with constant Cu or Ni sublayer thickness (with varying Ni or Cu sublayer thickness respectively) were electrodeposited on cooper substrates. Some Cu/Ni multilayers were annealed in a vacuum furnace at temperature increasing from 150

The X-ray diffraction investigations and SEM observations were used to analyse the modulated structure and determine the bilayer thickness of the nanomultilayers.The SEM and XRD investigations confirmed the layered structure of all deposited samples. The multilayered Cu/Ni coatings exhibit the bigger hardness than single Ni and Cu layers when the thickness of the bilayers is approximately a few nanometers. A maximum of the hardness was measured when the bilayer thickness was 10 nm and was about 25 % bigger than the Ni single layer hardness. Subsequent anneals led to a significant change in the preferential crystallographic orientation, quality of modulation structure and size of crystallites.

This work has been supported by Polish Ministry of Education and Science under Grant No. 3 T08A 078 27.

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