Calderon would like to express her thanks to the Fondecyt project number 167-2015 (Concytec, Perú). Pujada express his thanks to the project number FC-F-3-2017, Vicerrectorado de Investigación (UNIPerú), and also to the Universidad de Chile and the Fondecyt Project 1110148 (Conicyt, Chile).

MAX phase thin films have been synthesized by thermal treatment of a Ti-Al-C multilayer system. The preparation of the multilayer system was carried out via magnetron sputtering. Based on the thickness ratio among the individual nanoscale monolayers (Ti, Al, C), the resulting MAX phase stoichiometry can be controlled. This paper describes the synthesis of both Ti2AlC and Ti3AlC2 MAX phases from the same precursor multilayer system which is composed of a sequence of Ti/Al/C pure elemental single layers with thicknesses of 14, 6, and 3.5 nm, respectively. This sequence is repeated 22 times with a total thickness of around 500 nm. Rapid thermal treatment tests were performed to study the phase development. The Ti2AlC MAX phase forms in a temperature range below 850 °C, whereas the Ti3AlC2 MAX phase starts to form at temperatures above 850 °C and reaches its highest phase purity at 950 °C...