Physical-mechanical and physical-chemical properties of thin nanostructured boride/nitride films

Information on the microhardness determined by Vickers and nanoindentation tests, the elastic and electrical properties as well as the behavior at deformation/fracture and oxidation of TiB2, TiN and AlN films are generalized and discussed. The attention is also focused on the crystallite sizes and size effects. The edge dislocations have been observed inside the film crystallites.