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An alternative low thermal budget silicon carbide syntheses route is presented. The method is based on self-propagating high-temperature synthesis of binary silicon-carbon-based reactive mul­tilayers. With this technique, it is possible to obtain cubic polycrystalline silicon carbide at relatively low annealing temperatures by a solid state reaction. The reaction starts above 600 °C. The transformation process proceeds in a four-step process. The reaction enthalpy was determined to be (-70 ± 4) kJ/mol.

Terbium-doped aluminum nitride thin films have been deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The influence of annealing treatments on structural, morphological and luminescence properties of the films is examined with the aim to optimize post-deposition annealing conditions. Temperatures starting from 500 up to 1000°C using two annealing techniques were investigated: rapid thermal processing and quartz tube furnace. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the formation of aluminum oxide and aluminum oxynitride phases at temperatures higher than 750°C. The oxygen content in the surface layer was measured with energy dispersive X-ray. The terbium emission was obtained after excitation either by photons or electrons. The films treated with rapid thermal processing at 750°C resulted in the highest emission.

Cubic polytypes of SiC, GaN and AlN were grown on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy. The mechanical properties of the epitaxial layers were investigated by nanoindentation. For 3C-SiC grown on Si(111) and Si(100) a dependence of the mechanical properties on the surface preparation with germanium prior to the carbonization was obtained.

Reactive multilayers of nickel and aluminum were deposited by magnetron sputtering directly onto low temperature co‐fired ceramics (LTCCs) and copper plate for an easy bonding process. The morphology, interface structure, and exact composition of the nanolaminate films were investigated before and after reaction. It was possible to ignite the reaction for all deposited films by electrical spark discharge or by a laser pulse. It was found that the high roughness of the LTCCs enhances the adhesive force of the multilayers to the ceramic. Apart from the directly deposited multilayers, commercially available Nanofoils® covered with 5 µm tin on each side were used for comparison to join two ceramic carriers and also to join LTCCs to copper. In some cases, acceptable resulting bond strengths of the joint were found, a problem being the still poor reproducibility. The tests with the commercial Nanofoils® also showed a mixing of the tin coatings with the used silver based thick film metallization. The latter was printed on the LTCCs. Thus, the experiments confirm that directly deposited reactive multilayers are a promising possibility for joining ceramic devices, either to other ceramics or also to thermally mismatched metallic devices. A careful preparation of the multilayers in composition and total thickness is necessary to adjust the maximal temperature and the heat load to the bonding task in order to achieve best results.

Schichten und Beschichtungen sind mittlerweile eine unabdingbare Voraussetzung für eine Vielzahl von technischen Anwendungen für hochwertige Werkstoffe geworden. In diesem Beitrag werden beispielhaft hochwertige Beschichtungen für elektrisch leitende und optisch transparente Schichten für die Photovoltaik, Schichten für medizinische Elektroden, für Halbleiterkontakte und für Hochtemperaturkontakte vorgestellt. Die hierfür eingesetzten Verfahren sind das Magnetron‐Sputtern und die gepulste Laserdeposition. Der Einfluss der Beschichtungsparameter auf die funktionalen Eigenschaften werden vorgestellt.