The high-temperature behavior of an electrically conductive, opaque and hard Hf7B23Si22C6N40 ceramic film with an amorphous structure was systematically investigated in air up to 1700 °C and inert gases up to 1600 °C. The film was prepared by reactive pulsed dc magnetron sputter de...

CrN films were prepared using three different configurations of the HiPIMS discharge mode and the substrate holder potential. We investigate the effect of a positive pulse voltage (30–400 V) in bipolar HiPIMS on the crystal structure, microstructure and resulting mechanical properties of...

Interactions between polyolefins and silicon substrates are investigated upon their physical vapor deposition under vacuum. Molecular dynamics simulations show that polyolefins unfold upon adsorption and that two macromolecules suffice to produce a stable nucleus. Supersharp probe AFM measurements reveal&#...

Recently, amorphous Hf–B–Si–C–N coatings found to demonstrate superior high-temperature oxidation resistance. The microstructure evolution of two coatings, Hf7B23Si22C6N40 and Hf6B21Si19C4N47, annealed to 1500 °C in air is investigated to understand their high oxidation resistance. The annealed coatings develop...

Nanocrystalline MBCN (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) films were deposited onto Si substrates using pulsed magnetron co-sputtering of a single B4C-M target. The substrate temperature was adjusted to 450 °C during the depositions on the substrates at a floating potential. The total pressure of ...

The article reports on the investigation of mechanical properties of Si-rich (Zr, Si) alloy films deposited by magnetron sputtering. The main aim of this investigation is to develop flexible hard (Zr, Si) alloy films with enhanced resistance to cracking. The (Zr, Si) films were...

Structures of amorphous CNx materials are predicted by extensive ab-initio molecular-dynamics simulations (more than 800 trajectories) in a wide range of compositions and densities. The main attention is paid to the formation of N2 molecules, with the aim to predict and explain the ...

The letter reports on the surface hardening of bulk soft metal materials by protective coatings made of the same metal as bulk but with up to 6 times higher hardness than that of the bulk material. This surface hardening is demonstrated by covering of the Ti substrat...

Reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering was used for high-rate (deposition rate of 60 nm/min) deposition of conductive (resistivity of 0.003 Ω·cm) and optically transparent (extinction coefficient at the wavelength of 550 nm of 0.01) ZnO:Al thin films at ambient temperature (<&#x...

This article reports on the formation of strongly overstoichiometric ZrNx>1 and Ti(Al, V)Nx>1 coatings by reactive magnetron sputtering. Problems in the formation of overstoichiometric coatings and possible ways to form strongly overstoichiometric TMNx>1 nitride coatings up to TMNx=2 dinitride...

The paper deals with VO2-based thermochromic coatings prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering. We combine four ways how to improve the coating performance and to increase its application potential. First, reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering with a pulsed O2 flow control allowed...

The paper reports on the structure, microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties and oxidation resistance of WNx films with a stoichiometry x = [N]/[W] ranging from 0 to 1.5 prepared by magnetron sputtering. It was found that (i) films with x ≤ 0.20 exhibit α-W ...

We consider a reaction-diffusion system undergoing Turing instability and augment it by an additional unilateral nonsmooth unilateral source term. We investigate its influence on the Turing instability and on the character of resulting patterns. We illustrate the importance of the nonsmoothness&#...

In the current study, a solid state disc laser with a wavelength of 1030 nm and maximum power of 5.3 kW was used to melt the surface of pure tungsten samples (manufactured according to ITER specifications by Plansee SE). Several combinations of laser power and traverse&#x...

The specificity of the formation of Au sputtered nanoisland arrays (NIA) on a glass substrate or on a ZnO thin film doped by Ga is demonstrated. Statistical analysis of morphology images (SEM, AFM) exhibited the Log-normal distribution of the size (area) of nanoislands—their modus&...