| Summary: | A new type of high-entropy alloy, a nitride-based (AlCrTiZrMo)N/ZrO<sub>2</sub> nano-multilayered film, was designed to investigate the effect of ZrO<sub>2</sub> layer thickness on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and thermal stability. The results show that when the thickness of the ZrO<sub>2</sub> layer is less than 0.6 nm, it can be transformed into cubic-phase growth under the template effect of the (AlCrTiZrMo)N layer, resulting in an increased hardness. The (AlCrTiZrMo)N/ZrO<sub>2</sub> film with a ZrO<sub>2</sub> layer thickness of 0.6 nm has the highest hardness and elastic modulus of 35.1 GPa and 376.4 GPa, respectively. As the thickness of the ZrO<sub>2</sub> layer further increases, ZrO<sub>2</sub> cannot maintain the cubic structure, and the epitaxial growth interface is destroyed, resulting in a decrease in hardness. High-temperature annealing treatments indicate that the mechanical properties of the film decrease slightly after annealing at less than 900 °C for 30 min, while the mechanical properties decrease significantly after annealing for 30 min at 1000–1100 °C. The hardness and elastic modulus after annealing at 900 °C are still 24.5 GPa and 262.3 GPa, showing excellent thermal stability. This conclusion verifies the “template” effect of the nano-multilayered film, which improves the hardness and thermal stability of the high-entropy alloy.
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