Nanolayered composites are used in a variety of applications such as wear resistant coatings thermal barrier coatings optical and magnetic thin films and biological coatings Residual stresses produced in these materials during processing play an Important role in controlling their microstructure and properties In this paper we have studied the residual stresses in model metal-ceramic Al/SiC nanoscale multilayers produced by physical vapor deposition (magnetron sputtering) X-ray synchrotron radiation was used to measure stresses in the multilayers using the sin(2)Psi technique The stresses were evaluated as a function of layer thicknesses of Al and SIC and also as a function of the number of layers The stress state of Al in the multilayer was largely compressive compared to single layer Al stresses This is attributed to a peening mechanism due to bombardment of the Al layers by SIC and Ar neutrals during deposition The stress evolution was numerically modeled by a simplified peening process to qualitatively explain the Al thickness-dependent residual stresses (c) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved