Nanocolumnar Composite Microstructure of Superhard SiC Thin Film Deposited Using Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering Method.

Nano‐composite microstructure composed of nano‐columnar SiC crystalline grains embedded in an amorphous SiC matrix is responsible for the superhardness of the SiC thin film deposited using unbalanced magnetron sputtering. Hardness larger than 40 GPa, which is much larger than polycrystalline SiC materials, is obtained by controlling its microstructure of the SiC thin films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]