The surface topography, chemical composition, microstructure, nanohardness, and tribological characteristics of a Cu (film, 512 nm) -stainless steel 316 (substrate) system subjected to pulsed melting by a low-energy (20-30 keV), high-current electron beam (2-3 µs, 2-10 J/cm 2 ) were investigated. The film was deposited by sputtering a Cu target in the plasma of a microwave discharge in argon. To prevent local exfoliation of the film due to cratering, the substrate was multiply pre-irradiated with 8-10 J/cm 2 . On single irradiation, the bulk of the film survived, and a diffusion layer containing the film and substrate components was formed at the interface. The thickness of this layer was 120-170 nm irrespective of the energy density. The diffusion layer consisted of subgrains of γ-Fe solid solution and nanosized particles of copper. In the surface layer of thickness 0.5-1 µm, which included the copper film quenched from melt and the diffusion layer, the nanohardness and the wear resistance nonmonotonicly varied with energy density, reaching, respectively, a maximum and a minimum in the range 4.3-6.3 J/cm 2 . As the number of pulsed melting cycles was increased to five in the same energy density range, there occurred mixing of the film-substrate system and a surface layer of thickness ~2 µm was formed which contained ~20 at. % copper. Displacement of the excess copper during crystallization resulted in the formation of two-phase nanocrystal interlayers separating the γ-phase grains.