Invited Paper NM-WeM3
Nanocomposite Coatings – Playing with Nanostructures to Achieve New Properties

Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 8:40 am, Room Hau

Thin film technologies allow the preparation of materials that are compositionally modulated down to the nanometer scale. When the grain size of crystalline materials approaches the ten nanometer range, the properties known from their large-scale counterparts often change substantially. Such changes affect electronic and optical properties as well as the mechanical behavior of nanoscaled thin films. Examples include hard materials with built-in functionalities such as coloration, designed frictional properties through a variety of mechanisms as well as hardness-enhancement in wear-resistant coatings. Nanocomposite coatings, which consist of nanocrystalline nitrides or carbides can provide combinations of advantageous properties such as enhanced hardness and low friction for the case of TiC/a-C:H, high hardness and optical transparency in Al-Si-N thin films or designed thermal conductivity with oxynitride coatings for wear protection on cutting tools. Various examples of nanostructured thin film systems will be presented and the underlying principles for the successful operation of such thin film materials will be discussed.