We report on the mechanical properties of Cu–Nb alloys produced by combinatorial magnetron sputtering. Depending on the composition, the microstructure is either fully amorphous (~30–65 at.% Cu), a dispersion of Cu crystallites in an amorphous matrix (~70 at.%), or a dominant crystalline phase with separated nanoscale amorphous zones (~80 at.% Cu). Nanomechanical probing of the different microstructures reveals that the hardness of the fully amorphous alloy is much higher than a rule of mixture would predict. We further demonstrate a remarkable tunability of the resistance to plastic flow, ranging from ca. 9 GPa in the amorphous regime to ca. 2 GPa in the fully crystalline regime. We rationalize these findings based on fundamental structural considerations, thereby highlighting the vast structure-property design space that this otherwise immiscible binary alloy provides.

我们报告了通过组合磁控溅射生产的 Cu-Nb 合金的机械性能。根据成分的不同，微观结构要么是完全非晶态（~30–65 at.% Cu），要么是在非晶基质中分散的 Cu 微晶（~70 at.%），要么是具有分离纳米级非晶区的主要结晶相（ ~80 at.% Cu)。对不同微观结构的纳米力学探测表明，完全非晶态合金的硬度比混合规则预测的要高得多。我们进一步证明了对塑性流动的阻力的显着可调性，范围从约。在无定形状态下为 9 GPa 至约 在完全结晶状态下为 2 GPa。我们根据基本的结构考虑合理化这些发现，