Oxygen incorporation in Ti2AlC thin films studied by electron energy loss spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

Substitution of C with O in hexagonal inherently nanolaminated Ti2AlC has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Ti2Al(C1-x O (x) ) thin films with x a parts per thousand currency sign 0.52 are synthesized by both cathodic arc deposition with the uptake of residual gas O, and solid-state reaction between understoichiometric TiC (y) and Al2O3(0001) substrates. The compositional analysis is made by analytical transmission electron microscopy, including electron energy loss spectroscopy. Furthermore, predictive ab initio calculations are performed to evaluate the influence of substitutional O on the shear stress at different strains for slip on the (0001) basal plane in the [-1010] and [1-210] directions.