Surface Doping of VT6 Alloy with Zirconium by Pulsed Electron-Beam Mixing of Predeposited Multilayer Zr/Ti Film

We have studied characteristics of the surface doping of VT6 alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with zirconium, which was effected in order to reduce the concentrations of Al and V at the surface. The doping was performed by liquid-phase mixing of a Zr(20 nm)/Ti(20 nm). It is established that the pulsed beam-induced melting leads to the homogeneous mixing of all Ti/Zr nanolayers and the diffusion of Zr into substrate to a depth of similar to 0.5 µm. As a result, the surface layer with a thickness of similar to 0.5 µm is free of Al and V atoms and has a single-phase submicrocrystalline structure of alpha-Ti70Zr30 solid solution. Subsequent vacuum annealing leads to a decrease in the average grain size in the nearsurface layer to 90 nm and to an increase in the nanohardness of the doped layer.