Lukas Zauner

RHP-Technology GmbH

This work investigates the influence of Si-alloying up to 17 at.% on the structural, mechanical, and oxidation properties of magnetron sputtered CrB2±z-based thin films. Density-functional theory calculations combined with atom probe tomography reveal the preferred Si occupation of Cr-lattice sites and an effective solubility limit between 3 to 4 a...

Fatigue failure through sustained loading of ductile materials manifests in irreversible motion of dislocations, followed by crack initiation and growth. This contrasts with the mechanisms associated with brittle ceramics, such as nanostructured physical vapor deposited thin films, where inhibited dislocation mobility typically leads to interface-c...

Transition metal diboride-based thin films are promising candidates to replace state-of-the-art protective and functional coating materials due to their unique properties. Here, we focus on hexagonal WB2-z, showing that the AlB2 structure is stabilized by B vacancies exhibiting its energetic minima at sub-stoichiometric WB1.5. Nanoindentation revea...

Supplementary material for "Anisotropic super-hardness of hexagonal WB2±z thin films" manuscript.

Time-averaged and time-resolved ion fluxes during reactive HiPIMS deposition of Ti1-xAlxN thin films are thoroughly investigated for the usage of Ti1-xAlx composite targets – Al/(Ti+Al) ratio x = 0.4 and 0.6. Ion mass spectroscopy analysis revealed, that increasing x in the target material or reducing the N2 flow-rate ratio leads to a proportional...

During the growth of WC based thin films, carbon can be introduced by either a non-reactive or reactive deposition route. In this study, we compare the influence of the carbon origin on the coating properties, sputtering three different target materials – a ceramic WC, a ceramic WC including a conventional cobalt binder, and a metallic tungsten (W)...

The outstanding oxidation resistance, thermo-mechanical stability, and chemical inertness of alumina, but also the synthesis of phase pure polymorphs attract particular attention in academia and industry. Especially, the difficulties regarding the synthesis of α- or γ-structured Al2O3 by physical vapor deposition techniques are still strong limitat...

Recent investigations on ternary diborides revealed their enormous potential for the use as protective thin films. Within this study we investigate DC magnetron sputtered V1−xWxB2 thin films (with x= 0, 0.05, 0.13, 0.21) concerning their morphology, structure, mechanical properties, and thermal stability. Ab−initio calculations revealed, that while...

Reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (R-HiPIMS) is seen as a key-technology for the deposition of future hard and multifunctional coatings. Increased ionisation rates allow for additional possibilities in tuning specific coating characteristics based on growth mechanisms varied by surface-diffusion. Especially within the well-establishe...